Back in the first days of HyperCard, for those who remember it in the late
'80s, the very first manual contained very little about scripting, but
contained
a very useful walkthrough of HyperCard's other features. This was followed
by the excellent books by Danny Goodman and Dan Shafer describing the
scripting in great detail. (I'm especially delighted to get a note from Dan
Shafer in
response to my message as his book was so influential back then). I think I
would not have gotten involved with Revolution, though, without having that
previous experience with HyperCard, since the program seems to presume
significant prior knowledge on the part of the user. Dan Goodman's new book
should
help, but there is more that is needed, apart from scripting. The most obvious
thing is the Property Inspector for which there does not appear to be any
tutorial. I found out quite by chance that by holding the mouse over some of
the
categories in the property inspector one gets the Revolution command which
indirectly gives a clue as to what the item in the Property Inspector does.
How
the Property Inspector works should be basic knowledge provided with the
Revolution program. Also, since receiving the help of one reader of this
forum,
I found out that it is indeed possible for a standalone program to save data
through checking the right category in the Standalone window, something I did
not find in the documentation. Revolution is a remarkable program, but it is
going to steer away potential new users if it does not include the basic
documentation. The "About" and "How To" sections of the User Guide are very
helpful, but they are not organized in a way that enables easy access to the
information, or learning it for the first time; there is no Index to the
manual.
(By the way, I am the editor and president of a medical book publishing
company, MedMaster Inc, www.medmaster.net, and am used to seeing book
submissions
all the time. It is vital that a book provide the reader not just with
isolated details but with a broad overall understanding of the concepts). I
hope
to use Revolution as a substitute for the now discontinued mTropolis in
programming our CDs. It is a terrific program with great power, but simply
needs
more basic documentation.
Steve Goldberg
President, MedMaster publishing co.
www.medmaster.net
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