TIP OF THE DAY -- Help Screens

[Bill Vermillion]

On Thu, Mar 25, 2004 at 11:28:25AM -0500, Jay R. Ashworth thus
spoke:

> On Thu, Mar 25, 2004 at 11:16:11AM -0500, Courtney wrote:
>
> > I could not agree more...the screens are set up in such a
> > manner that its for people who know it, not for those who
> > dont

> Correct.  Yellow Cards (quick reference cards) have always been like
> that.  They're not reference manuals, they're not tutorials, and
> they're not intended to be either.

And for many things reference manuals are a far cry from what they
used to be.

> Marketing crap notwithstanding (and ghod knows, I've written
> enough of it :-), you can't learn to be a decent database apps
> programmer without reading the books, folks.

And you should read a book or so about overall data base design or
concepts to understand the explicit database you are using.

The tutorial manual for Unify were truly amazing in overall concept
and not Unify specific in many areas.  The old big Tandy manuals
had that, and I see on the shelf over there ----> that I have
three of the small sized ring binders that the PC market used as
standards that came with an update to Unify. 

> Now, *my* complaint is that the help files don't even do what
> they're *supposed* to do all that well, and I know some of the
> long time programmers agree with me... which is why Laura's QRG
> replacement files exist, among other things. Even they aren't
> perfect, but they're a damn sight better than what ships.

It seemed to change about the same time that the idea of 'If you
know how to turn on a computer you can learn to program in XXX in
24 hours / 7 days / a month .

The latter really seem to do nothing more than teach you what
buttons to push [relating to consumer goods] and not why you push
them or why some combinations are better than others.

Bill
-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com