(no subject)

[Laura Brody]

At 11:14 AM 3/25/04, Tom Pancero wrote:
>I have long been dismayed with the 'Help' screens available with Filepro.
>It appears to me that the contents of the Help screens were written by 
>someone who
>is very well versed in Filepro and seems to make certain assumptions about the
>level of understanding the reader has.

         From v3.0 to v4.8, I wrote the on-line help text. These files were
meant to help you jog your memory and/or offer you a clue as to what to
read in the printed manual (back in the days when you got a printed manual).
There was no "F9-Search" feature, so in *cabe, the help pages could
span many, many, MANY screen fulls before you found what you were looking
for. The text was deliberately short for that reason.

         After v4.8, other people took over the maintenance of the help files
and the company stopped including a printed manual. The F9-Search feature was
added. The help file text was not expanded to compensate for that change.

>I rarely use the Help screens for anything other than checking on the 
>syntax of a
>command.  This seems to me to be a waste of a valuable reference tool.
>
>I have long believed that any instruction sheets, or help files, should be 
>EDITED by
>someone who has very little connection to the 'Black Room Code Cutters'.
>
>An item for the 'Wish List' .......
>
>How about a committee (arg!) to review/modify the Help files where they could
>tweak the format and content of the files.  With a resource like the 
>Filepro List
>I am sure the product of their (the committee) efforts would be significant.

         There is no need for such a committee. I believe that such a
product already exists....

         Like everyone else, I thought that the help files included with
filePro needed a massive rewrite. As an ex-employee (and Ken's wife)
I knew that fP Tech's dance card was already full and that there was
zero possibility that they would have the resources to do it. The
only option was for an outside person or company to tackle it. As
far as I knew, nothing was on the horizon, so I put together MY
version of the help files and created a printed Quick Reference
Guide. I decided early on that each processing command/function
would have at least one screen of text including syntax, version
number it first appeared in, any "gotchas", real world sample
code, plus related commands in a "see also" list. Additionally,
if the command/function generated something that the user would
see, I "drew" a picture of it in the help file with arrows and
labels so that even a total beginner would understand exactly
what the parameters would do.

         Being a bit of a perfectionist, my major goal was to have
my product be as complete and accurate as possible. To accomplish
that, after I got an alphabetical list of all environmental variables
and processing commands/functions, Ken went through the source code
looking for omissions to my list. I actually found a processing
command that had not been documented since v1.0 [1], as well as
parameters and uses that simply weren't documented anywhere. I also
found the "@" syntax in the edit language - I had never heard of it
before, but it was there since at least v3.0.

         I guess I did a good job since I have only gotten compliments
and praise from customers :-) .

         To find out more about it, visit:
<http://www.hvcomputer.com/shopping/orderform.shtml#quickref>


         I have tried to work a deal with fP Tech to license my help
files and QRG, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe if enough people
on the mailing list ask them to do it, it might happen...

>End_of_rant

[1] For you curious types, the command was "reset".



Laura Brody, Publisher of the "filePro Developer's Journal"
+------------- Hudson Valley Computer Associates, Inc ----------+
| PO Box 859 120 Sixth Street http://www.hvcomputer.com        |
| Verplanck, NY 10596-0859 Voice mail: (914) 739-5004           |
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