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The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

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Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

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Trace Window

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    Trace Window

    After closing the Field Rules window I received the following message: "There are 2 warnings. Please view the trace window for details."

    I haven't had occasion in the past to use the trace window, so I sought information from the online help system. Unfortunately, that system (as far as I can see) doesn't allow the user to enter a key word or two and search an index. My next step was to go back to my V4 User's Guide, which does not document the trace window in it's index. I did find reference to the trace window in the glossary, but that only supplies a definition.

    Since it is a window (something that you view) I checked the View menu, where I finally found it.

    My point here is twofold:

    1. The trace window needs to be better documented.

    2. The online help in Alpha Five is limited, since it apparently does not allow the user to search for specific terms. It provides a user guide with contents, but when you are trying to search for a specific item, broad categories, like those found in the online help system, are of limited value. If I am wrong here, I would welcome input that would enable me to better utilize the online help system.

    #2
    RE: Trace Window

    Bernard,

    1. Amen

    2. They are obviously still working on the A5V5 docs. The team well knows that this was has been a weak point since Alpha4 which had great docs.

    Personally, I think that proper indexing of the documentation we already have would go a long way. Unfortunately mechanized indexing is useless and proper indexing is labor intensive. I note that many experienced users have hand indexed their personal copies of the documentation. Steve Workings' is a christmas tree of colored tabs!

    To revert to the trace window, it can be tremendously useful but I don't remember reading much on getting the most out of the feature. I am sure the clever people on the board have invented uses others would like to know about. I know I would.

    Here is my contribution which is completely unoriginal and obvious.

    When developing a script I keep writing myself a message to the trace window to make sure the script is getting where I want it to.

    The command is very simple:
    trace.writeln("your message here")

    If I want to assure myself that a variable is filling properly I write
    trace.writeln(myvariable)

    I keep cutting and pasteing the message to the end, or almost the end, of the lengthening script, changing the message and/or variable as I go. It works a bit like a personalized debugger but faster. I keep the trace window open but minimized so I can see the result with a single keystroke.

    I would love to see what uses others have come up with.

    Bill
    Bill Hanigsberg

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Trace Window

      I have a suggestion. If the documentation .pdf's were kept online and kept updated so that as each patch were added the docs were updated we could download the latest and greatest. THEN there should be some method for us the users to add entries to an online index that refers to the pdf by section, subsection, item for instance. We can do the work for Alpha. I find that many times what I am looking for is there but not in the index. Once I find it I put in a sticky or put stuff in the code library. If we could put a reference in an online index we all could benefit from the experience and searching of others. This was the idea behind the FAQ when that was brought up. The better the availability of the documentation the more copies of A5 will be sold so there is certainly an incentive for Alpha to do something here.

      That said, there is a new user manual coming soon, which I think (hope) will be very good, plus the message board itself, as mentioned by Lenny, is going to be redone in A5 so hopefully he can do some of this stuff. The problem I know is limited staff. I think what they have done so far with the people available has been great and am sure it will continue because Alpha is one of the few software companies where the owners listen (and care) what the customers needs are.

      Russ

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Trace Window

        Thanks Bill and Russ,

        Your thoughts and suggestions were helpful and appreciated.

        Bernie

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Trace Window

          If you open the .pdf version of the manual, Acrobat Reader has a dandy find routine that will make short work of locating information. No substitute for a proper index, but extremely useful.

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Trace Window

            In regards to the manual, like everyone else I'd really like to have it. However, given the choice of a quickly but poorly created manual or an effective well documented manual, I'll go for the latter. And, if that means I have to wait longer for it, then so be it especially since I have the use of the Bulletin Board!

            I've used this BB many times as I've worked on my new V5 application and it has NEVER failed me! Yes, I'm independent and would rather look it up in a manual but not at the price of a poorly created manual!

            Thank you to all of you on the BB who have been such a tremendous help to me!!!

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Trace Window

              No question about that. Go that route all the time.

              Bill
              Bill Hanigsberg

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Trace Window

                Russ, I like the idea of letting the users build (or supplement) a useful index. Sounds like a database app to me, wonder if we could find an easy to use database tool to keep up with changes to the index?

                -- tom

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: Trace Window

                  I just downloaded Alpha 5 day before yesterday (so please excuse my ignorance) but I've been able to search on the Online Help. Go to Help/Contents then to View/Search. The search mechanism should come up first, but unfortunately you have to dig for it.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: Trace Window

                    To what ignorance do you refer, Dianne?

                    So far you're batting 1000.

                    I had to dig per your instructions but I found it. I, for one, have overlooked this. So thanks and welcome to the message board.

                    Bill
                    Bill Hanigsberg

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: Trace Window

                      Fabulous! I'm sure I'll be using all of your collective knowledge quite a bit in the near future, so I'm glad this helped.

                      --Dianne

                      Comment


                        #12
                        RE: Trace Window

                        Dianne,

                        With respect to Bill's comments, Ditto!!! However, and it has nothing to do with you, their is still no mention of the trace window in the documentation.

                        Also, in addition to View/Search you can also go to View/Index. Seems similar.

                        Anyway, thanks a lot, because I'm sure this information will definitely come in handy in the future.

                        As for ignorance, I plead GUILTY.

                        Bernie

                        Comment

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