Re: Help files - design them for ignorant people.
Hi Ira
Thanks for the post. I remember reading some of those posts. Your explanations are always very complete and well written.
The thing I was trying to point out / accomplish with the idea of a wiki is that we could aggregate some of this great information that is already on the board (that folks seem to have trouble finding) into a central repository of information that would be an easy way for all of us to have (in essence) a FAQ for each major category of A5 development that might be on the wiki.
The saying "You don't know what you don't know" comes to mind here. For instance, take the naming conventions topic. A new user to Alpha would have no idea that he/she should try and follow a naming convention. I don't think the Alpha documentation addresses this. But, if a new user were to come to a page that said "Practical Tips for Getting Started in A5" and there was a topic on naming conventions it might be a way to give someone good advice right from the beginning. As I said before, and I think Cal has pointed out. Everyone is ignorant about something. For instance in my case, I will be finishing the main portion of my desktop app soon and then there is a web portion of the app that needs written. As of right now I have no real idea of how to proceed with the web side of things. Some good practical tips would really help me. I am going to take Jerry Brightbill's 2 day course at the Alpha Conference on this but you get the idea. I will be in attendance at your sessions as well.:D
Regards,
Jeff
Hi Ira
Thanks for the post. I remember reading some of those posts. Your explanations are always very complete and well written.
The thing I was trying to point out / accomplish with the idea of a wiki is that we could aggregate some of this great information that is already on the board (that folks seem to have trouble finding) into a central repository of information that would be an easy way for all of us to have (in essence) a FAQ for each major category of A5 development that might be on the wiki.
The saying "You don't know what you don't know" comes to mind here. For instance, take the naming conventions topic. A new user to Alpha would have no idea that he/she should try and follow a naming convention. I don't think the Alpha documentation addresses this. But, if a new user were to come to a page that said "Practical Tips for Getting Started in A5" and there was a topic on naming conventions it might be a way to give someone good advice right from the beginning. As I said before, and I think Cal has pointed out. Everyone is ignorant about something. For instance in my case, I will be finishing the main portion of my desktop app soon and then there is a web portion of the app that needs written. As of right now I have no real idea of how to proceed with the web side of things. Some good practical tips would really help me. I am going to take Jerry Brightbill's 2 day course at the Alpha Conference on this but you get the idea. I will be in attendance at your sessions as well.:D
Regards,
Jeff
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