I don't know about you, but I think multimedia authoring software should be intuitive enough, and well documented enough to allow a fairly non-technical user to do amazing things without constantly needing to ask assistance from local forum gurus.
Just to give an example of what I mean, I would like to call attention to Apple's own Keynote 3 software. At a casual glance it just looks like the average presentation software package, but, if you look beneath the surface of its fantastically simple and elegant interface, it it can perform a number of highly varied, really sophisticated, multimedia things in an extremely straightforward fashion, the likes of which are much more difficult to accomplish with nearly any competing product. Almost any user, even a markedly non-technical one could become productive with this inexpensive piece of software in just a couple of hours practice. To tell you the truth, after several days of probing, I'm not so sure about Revolution being that simple to get a grasp on. I really want it to be so, dispite my first impressions. I do believe it is powerful and loaded with hidden functionality just waiting to be unlocked by my imagination, but I really don't have a clue how to go about "authoring" the kinds of presentations that I think it may be capable of authoring and that I need it to be able to author. No matter how "English-like" Revolution's programming language is, it is still programming, and envolves addressing a machine with certain unfriendly protocols that do not make much sense to my English speaking brain. Even common terms like "variable" do not imply, clearly in English, any concept I am familiar with, especially given its "English" implied meaning, though I am a reasonably educated English speaker. It is not the English-like syntax of Revolution that is the major stumblingblock for me, but understanding why I have to arrange lines of code in the order that is required, making no mistakes, in order to make even the simplest multimedia events occur. To me, programming in Transcript is like looking at the fathomless depths of the sea, or the endless horizon that spans its surface, and wondering how I can get from Arizona to Tahiti, by boat. And, the examples I have seen posted on the RunRev mother site do not specifically address very many of the kinds of tasks and whole presentations that I really am desirous and needing to make. So, I may be able to start a project, but, ultimately, because of the lack of specific presentation examples, coupled with my lack of programming background, I will be forced to consult the forum gurus, which I really feel is an unnecessary and irritating practice, in general, to have to do - especially since most of the gurus would rather be, or should be working serously at their various necessary professions, instead of racking up countless hours feeding me, one fish at a time. No what I mean? Greg Smith -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Dependence-on-Programming-Experts-tf1893108.html#a5177178 Sent from the Revolution - User forum at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
