Hi Bernie,
Not to start a fight here, but I want to respond to your thoughts. I understand
that people like books and so do I. I still look at my R:Base Reference
Manual every now and then. The point is that they are expensive and RBTI
has not even hinted at doing any type of manual. They have taken the
HTML route because it is less expensive than a book and they can quickly
bring the documentation up to date. In other words- books are gone- do not
expect one. If they ever start selling a hundred thousand units of R:Base then
maybe you will see one, but until then- they are history. Given the speed at
which RBTI is making changes, I think they did the right thing. I would
rather have the changes in HTML than have an old, outdated reference
manual.
Given the above scenario, you had best learn to use a search engine or go
without it. Your choice and, as Razzak says, "Do R:Base Your Way".
Best regards,
Mike Young
On Tue, 22 May 2001 17:12:26 -0400, Bernie Corrigan wrote:
>Mike -
> Most search engines are so anemic that they are laughable. They
>can't even look for a phrase. The user either finds nothing or is
>overwhelmed by vast quantities of information. As for searching for
>information one html page at a time, you can't be serious. Computerized
>indexes that are just as good as book indexes do exist. Also a good index
>gives one the ability to browse organized subject headings within a topic
>QUICKLY and THOROUGHLY. I have yet to see the search engine that
will do
>that one. Such indexes are usually built by people who know the subject
>matter and who sometimes put in extra stuff to take care of changed
>terminology or in the case of software, changed usage and the readers will
>often be led to things they didn't know about but want to know about. Fat
>chance of that happening with the average search engine.
>
> BTW, I have lots of time to go out and locate NoteTab, whatever that
>is, learn how to load it with the RBase documentation, load it with the
>RBase documentation, then learn how to find things in it. Oh yes, and each
>time the RBase documentation changes I suppose that the information in
>NoteTab must be deleted and reloaded, or something like that, to get the
>updates in. I already know how to use an index.
>
>With tongue firmly in cheek,
>Bernie
>
>P.S. Books are not gone.
>=======================================
>At 10:34 AM 5/22/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>>Hi Paul,
>>
>>True, books are nice but they are gone. You can use powerful search tools
to
>>find instances of a word or phrase. You can search in a HTML document
>>with almost anything. If you want a real comprehensive search then load
all
>>the HTML documents in a program such as NoteTab Pro and do a search
on
>>all documents.
>
>[snip]
>
