Adrian Williams wrote:
IMHO in the doc for 'launch', right underneath 'Examples', an
additional 'Example in use' would be helpful.
Jim's snippet with its comments puts one of the example statements
into some context...
put the defaultFolder into tOrigDefaultFolder
set the defaultFolder to "C:\theDirTheExeIsIn" -- Put actual dir the
exe is in here
launch "MyProgram.exe" -- Put the actual name of the exe here
set the defaultFolder to tOrigDefaultFolder -- Puts the defaultFolder
back where it was
The problem with the above explanation that the defaultFolder lines have
absolutely nothing to do with the launch command. You could have just
as easily wanted to launch an app that is relative to a URL which would
take
another set of "chunk" explanations that again are totally different and
totally unrelated to the launch command. To write such all inclusive
documentation for every command would be a daunting task and so verbose
that it goes too far the other direction (i.e., so much to read that no
one would read any of it).
It's a fine line that the documentation writers have to walk. In the
future, be sure to look at all the "See Also" entries in the dictionary
and read the WHOLE command description. The See Alsos can often point
you in the right direction but also, at least in my case, lead me to
learn things I hadn't even thought about before so I end up learning a
lot more than if I'd had Scott's example laid out in front of me, took
it verbatim, and left.
You are suffering from the same problem I know I had and I'm sure a lot
of others had: The lack of a good tutorial book on Revolution to get you
over the "hump" when you're new to the language. It's my impression
that a large percentage of the current Rev users came from a HyperCard
(or one of it's derivatives) background and so they've already been
over that "hump." The simple terse Rev dictionary format is just fine
for them. I remember when I started (from a C/Tcl/Assembly background
of MANY years) I couldn't even figure out where to start. The whole
concept of passing messages and calling handlers it totally different
that the in-line code you'd write in C or Tcl. Once I made that mental
leap, things just started falling into place. I still had questions
that the documentation didn't answer by that's where this mailing list
came in. There was always somebody that could quickly fill in the
"whole" in my knowledge.
I believe you can still get Dan Shaefer's (spelling?) book "Software at
the Speed of Thought" which was written around Rev 2.1 I think but it
was very helpful in getting me over a lot of the rough spots that the
dictionary and user's manual didn't cover (and shouldn't have). There
are also a couple of HyperCard/Talk books by Danny Goodman that several
people here have recommended. I bought them but haven't really read
them so I can't vouch for how helpful they'd be to you.
You do have a chance to help out humanity though (well, at least the
part of humanity that is struggling to learn Revolution): the user
comments at the bottom of the dictionary. They are there for just the
same kind of problem you were having, in other words, not quite enough
meat around the bone to make it clear. If you feel that something might
need more (or better) explaination, add a user comment to enlighten the
rest of us. If we all contribute a little here and little there, we
should end up with a first class reference that everyone will benefit from.
len
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