On 27 Oct 2004 at 18:17, Larry Manire wrote: > > Hi Richard, > > It's hard to believe that Caliper could continue to keep the cost down > by printing additional manuals.
They don't need to actually print it though. A pdf DK user guide would fill the need. Users who were interested could either print it themselves or read it on screen. The absolute lack of a DK user guide is a big drawback. The online help makes a decent start for a reference manual. The printed Maptitude User's Guide is fantastic, and covers all the aspects of using the software, grouped by topic, with short hands on tutorials and detailed explanations of when to do what. > That is probably the primary reason > for providing it as a help file. I think you would be surprised at how > quickly you can pick up the basics of writing a DK program if you took > an hour or two to do the Quick Start at Help- Contents-Help for > GISDK-Welcome to GISDK Help!-Quick Start. The basics are pretty easy, especially if you have some background in object oriented programs. The way GISDK works seems very similar to the way VB for applications works. > The harder part comes in choosing from the hundreds of functions to do > what you want to do and that takes using the Outline of Topics and > time and practice. I don't have any problem finding a function that will do what I want. What I can't do is get the function to do what I want, because the online help doesn't really explain how to use the parameters. Here is an example: OpenMapFromAnnotation() The function requires the argument "integer id" where id is defined as "the ID of the map annotation in the layout." Unfortunately, the help file page for OpenMapFromAnnotation() does not it give you a clue as to how to determine what the id is! I'm sure someone like you probably knows how to figure that out, but someone like me does not, and the information isn't there. There should probably be sections of the help file that just address how Maptitude layouts are built, and how the program keeps track of what is going on in the user work area. Without a good understanding of how the program functions, it's hard to conceptualize any addins that do anything significant. It would also be very good if the examples were longer sections of code, instead of the typical single lines. Single lines of code out of context aren't much more helpful than the syntax statement. Bob ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/C5grlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Maptitude/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
