This reminds me of something I posted in 2012 (!) It takes its starting point not from what Leo is, but from the sorts of things people might want to use and program a computer for in the first place which, for many of us, have very little to do with editing. Here is is again:
-------------------------------- I should start by saying that I use Leo daily and wouldn't now consider starting any project lasting more than a week without it. I'm immensely grateful to Edward and the community of collaborators for creating and polishing it. Two things prompt me nevertheless to write. First, I have a strong feeling that there are ways I could be using it better, to make my life even easier, if only I could manage to break into them; secondly, Edward asks from time to time something like "Why isn't everybody using Leo and what would it take to convert more people?" Maybe the following will be a contribution. When I started programming in Python a couple of years ago, and started learning about object-oriented principles, one that struck me especially was "Program to the interface, not the implementation." (It often takes me a while to remember this when I'm working; but it always makes things better when I do.) My "Aha" moment a couple of months ago came when I realized that this wasn't true only of programming -- the same principle applies to writing as well. Papers that jump right in to telling me what the author did don't work nearly as well as those that start with the reader and what s/he might care about and how the author proposes to help with that. [Isn't it interesting that the maxim I quoted above disobeys itself, because it refers to the implementation in a computer program whereas the real interface is the general act of communication and the primacy of the receiver over the transmitter.] So I envisage a tutorial starting as follows (sketch only): Suppose you have a project that entails using some data, doing some computations, and writing up the results. If you want to easily: -- work on / store / contemplate the project as a unified whole [Leo manages all relevant files in one outline] -- see and work on one small part in its context [Leo is an outliner] -- copy thoughts, results from one context to another [clones] -- switch between interactive and batch processing [iPython interface] -- produce nice printed (literate?) documentation for those who don't use Leo or don't do all their work glued to a computer screen [rst3? noweb? Fweb? maybe little sample batch files with all the required steps?] -- ??? [scripting] And here I'm stuck: Leo documentation assures me that scripting is an amazingly powerful answer, but doesn't tell me what questions I might like to ask, or what needs I might have, that it is an answer to. It simply tells me what to do if I already know why I want to. -- Here is where the community may want to contribute ways Leo has made their working lives easier and more productive, by meeting existing needs or wishes that had nothing intrinsically to do with Leo. I envisage this as complementing the existing tutorial in leodocs. It may provide an entrance that a different class of potential user would find attractive. Or maybe I just need someone to gently point me to where what I am suggesting already exists ;-) Cheers, geoff evans ------------------------------------------------------------------- Major offshoots in the last decade (e.g.ViewRendered) suggest further examples of "if you want to easily ..." that people who use and understand them could provide. Confession: Most of what I used to do with Leo I now do with Jupyter notebooks. This is partly because my collaborators are more likely to know and use it, but also possibly because the documentation tends to take it for granted that a feature is valuable so all that is necessary is to show me how (but not why) to use it. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/leo-editor/65fd0504-2985-4dd1-9b1c-80b728ae5cd2n%40googlegroups.com.
