SUMMARIZE:
could we improve web2py documentation dramatically w/o creating a lot
of new content just by tagging?
FULL:
After Massimo's post in "Preventing login after Auth.register; Adding
groups to the register form"
>It is in the book but it is called form_factory. web2py support both
>names.
I know, factory is there. but there is no info about this little trick:
SQLFORM.factory(db.auth_user, Field('something'))
I know it is "lame-->not-a-trick" for programmers/carefull readers of the book
but how can one(student, beginner) know he can do that? Let me present
you some feedback about teaching web2py to students of.. psychology
..with "some" background in programming
(means: after 1 year of basics+databases(EXCEL;)+MYSQL)+Python - yes,
they are pretty green but they know what an object is more or less,
they know what does it mean to return a value, they understand what
the database is. they are probably convinced they know how it works)
They see db.auth_user as a whole table of data(YES), not the
"definition", they stick to this thinking almost to the end, they give
up after "showing" them how it is coded in DAL, how f.e the drop()
method works
I needed to explain this thing to many of them. Somehow, they see it
that way. And you probably know why..
because of this: db.person['id'] ;)
of course, IN THE BOOK:
"It defines, stores and returns a Table object called "person"
containing a field (column) "name". This object can also be accessed
via db.person, so you do not need to catch the return value.
define_table checks whether or not the corresponding table exists."
(they claim they understand those first 6 sections of the book but it
seems they missed some details)
should this sentence: "It defines,... " go UPPERCASE? Or rather go
uppercase when "beginner button" CLICKED in the book app?
the book is great BUT pretty condensed. hard to read for someone who
just learned a lot of things from the python section of the web2py
book.
This is the point of my question. Even if I am still wrong and the
"trick" is in the book, the question still stands.
Massimo, I don't expect nor want to waste your time to implement such
things especially since the book app is online and free AFAIK. I am
asking community, does marking/tagging things in the book/other
recipes makes sense for you? because tagging will be a lot of work.
but could this improve web2py documentation dramatically w/o creating
new content?
Maybe this could nicely complete the idea of making new tutorials on
different levels of knowledge.
quote from the previous thread:
"
or.. are we trying to fit to much into the book, and soon we will need
beginner's and advanced book. normal/extended/with python explanatory
etc.
this is a question for all of you:
How far should we go with documenting, the book/web2pyslices/etc W/O marking
sections/subsections/sentences *beginner/*advanced(maybe some other
markers) so we
could easily split/sort them later?
"
--
Kuba
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