It was at least a couple of years ago that I posted to the MC list that
I thought that the (not sure of the exact titles --- my copies are at
work) HyperCard Users Manual and Language Reference from the original
boxed version were two of the most elegant and well written software
manuals I had every read. I am surprised that so few software companies
have adopted Apple's style and format or insist on good writing from
their manual writers. Online help in general does not come close to
the usefulness of a well written manual in traditional print.
Gregory
On Aug 12, 2004, at 6:06 PM, Marty Billingsley wrote:
Introductory programming was one of the best uses of HyperCard,
I thought, and have been trying to promote this with Rev. We
switched over from HC a year ago with our 8th grade programming
class, and have been very happy with it. Rev has, of course,
several advantages over HC; two biggies are its use of color and
the ability to save apps for any platform so students can take
their work home to show their folks.
I know of other schools that are hanging on with HC, who would
probably make the switch if readable documentation were available.
I used to be able to hand my students Danny Goodman's book and let
them look up things in the index. My students can navigate Rev's
online help, but since they often don't know what keywords to look
for it isn't that useful. There should be an index of concepts,
rather than keywords. I'm thinking of creating a "recipe book"
that teachers could use with kids; there were several such for HC
that got a lot of teachers started.
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