G'day Geoff
> If you did, what did you like and/or not like about it?
????
I first did it years ago with version 3 and then again after getting version
5 (V3 lacked some stuff I need so sat on a shelf unused)
I agree with whoever (joe?) suggested a modular approach. Whilst the
tutorial is reasonably thorough, it does take a while to go through it and
by the end has become parrot programming - read this, type this, you're
done. People with programming experience will probably find this sufficient
to pick up the RB syntax but for the actual programming newbie they're
probably not a lot better off than when they started. Sprinkled throughout
needs to be small challenges (with answers later) to make sure their brain
is 'getting it'.
I'd like to see the current tutorial remain but modularised. Each module
would be self contained but with the ability to be integrated with each
other.
Start with the basic window and plain text (I've read numerous requests on
this list along the lines of "how do I get the tutorial to save as plain
text?"). That way starters could have a working plain text editor in say 30
minutes. Finish with good programming practice like checking if a doc has
been modified, saving etc.
Another module could handle RTF.
Another module could be "Now what if you want to save this into a database
for later reference". Now it's in the database, how do I get it out and
display it? What about using a different database like MySQL.
Another module could be "Now what if you want to be able to email this to
someone?". This would NOT REQUIRE the person to have done the database or
rtf module! They could just email their plain text doc.
More advanced modules could be things like "Creating custom tags for styled
text" so people who want to create HTML or Quark text editors can. This
could be followed by how to FTP a saved document to another machine so all
those new HTML editors can be useful:)
Doing it this way, people can be introduced to sockets and databases and
advanced text crawling but only if they feel they need to. Currently you're
forced to make an RTF editor even if it's not relevant to your needs.
I think the graphics/canvas parts of RB (which, BTW, I have never even
tried) should be an entirely different tutorial. Perhaps you could start
with a window and show how to load an image into it and eventually build it
into an image database. An advanced tutorial could somehow join this and the
text editor together to introduce the user to database relationships. We
could end up with a content management system.
The Office integration should be standalone also - because not everyone is
going to be needing it.
I guess what I'm saying is I'd like to learn what I need for what I'd like
to accomplish now. This would hopefully result in more satisfaction and less
frustration for beginners.
Oh, and finally, some clearer, newbie based class implementation stuff. I
have a very old and procedural mind and struggle with classes. I think if
the whole class thing could be made easier then people like me would use
products like yours a lot more.
I don't mean to be disparaging of the current tutorial - it does a pretty
good job whilst trying to appeal to the broadest audience - but in trying to
do just that, it can overwhelm the very people it's trying to help.
I just realised how long this response is - the many feature requests will
have to wait for another day...
But hey, if you decide to implement any of this sort of stuff, I'd be happy
to road test it.
cheers
Kim
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