Re: What's good about the WAS and what's not so good ...
Tom,
As you liked to start your rant, "It is clear to me..." that all you want in this thread is for everyone to agree with you and, I guess, do nothing productive!!! And then to name call at that... Maybe time to step back a bit and cool down. None of us are ganging up on you. After reading many of your posts, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Michael has not once said that there is not deficiencies. He just asked everyone to be specific instead of just ranting. That would actually make this thread very worthwhile to all of us. And Alpha if we want them to read this.
As a start, I would like to say that over the years that I have learnt a lot by following examples and then entering them myself. It gives you a quick overall study of the interface as well as methods in which someone else uses to accomplish certain goals. Yes the AlphaSports sample is excellent but for a new person to Alpha, it would be more educational to actually build the AlphaSports app from written instructions. Many years ago, I purchased Dr. Wayne's book and was able to go through and build his checkbook application. It taught me an awful lot about where to even enter things into the interface. As AlphaFive is not a mainstream product in the bookstores, I believe it is imperative for the marketing gurus At AlphaSoftware to get more examples done like this. Again from my yesteryears, I remember how magazines used to have sections of code each month that added on to the previous months installation. If Alpha followed this method, in short order they could have something quite useful for anyone to start with. The sample app in the docs (I think it was AlphaMovies) has so many mistakes in it that it becomes frustrating for a new user.
As for the current docs, they are mostly technical docs and not really a "help" manual as so many tend to call it. This is an area that needs to be seriously looked at in my mind. For Alpha to call their product able to be used by non-programmers, then they need to start catering better to that market. After a few years of using it, I do believe it to be very powerful without doing any real programming. But it took a long while for me to figure out what I have.
The current docs are quite behind the time as the last update was now a year ago. So many things have changed since then (like a new version) that it really should be dealt with. Someone needs to be dealing with everything that is sent to the link in the docs for updates. For those that have sent in corrections, it seems like you are wasting your time and hinders them from continuing to do so. When there was a person in charge of the documentation, updates were quite regular. I think that Alpha will have to consider this position with a lot more urgency considering what some members have said recently.
This also brings up another point to be thought about - AlphaSoftware is not a big company. This does seriously limit what it is that they can do and they have to decide where there resources are best used. I think that it is quite well known that we are all pushing for more help in the documentation and education areas. And my own specific requests would be to update the technical docs that are already there and then to expand greatly in the area of further samples.
As for the forum, it is the greatest resource there is right now for help. And all those that answer questions, right or wrong, at least shows that everyone is trying to help one another as there is always more than one way to look at a problem. I just want to thank all those people who have taken their time to respond as I have learnt so much from everyones questions and answers and look forward to reading many more in the future. At the same time, this might be a good time to call out on all those other people who like to use this forum but return very little in return to others questions. We all need to participate to make this fairer to all involved.
I eagerly await Steve Woods post as I am sure that it will be done with all the professionalism and articulate thinkng that he usually exhibits in all his posts and documentation that he has made available for download. He has a much broader knowledge of AlphaFive than most of us and his post should be good food for thought for all of us to comment on.
Tom,
As you liked to start your rant, "It is clear to me..." that all you want in this thread is for everyone to agree with you and, I guess, do nothing productive!!! And then to name call at that... Maybe time to step back a bit and cool down. None of us are ganging up on you. After reading many of your posts, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Michael has not once said that there is not deficiencies. He just asked everyone to be specific instead of just ranting. That would actually make this thread very worthwhile to all of us. And Alpha if we want them to read this.
As a start, I would like to say that over the years that I have learnt a lot by following examples and then entering them myself. It gives you a quick overall study of the interface as well as methods in which someone else uses to accomplish certain goals. Yes the AlphaSports sample is excellent but for a new person to Alpha, it would be more educational to actually build the AlphaSports app from written instructions. Many years ago, I purchased Dr. Wayne's book and was able to go through and build his checkbook application. It taught me an awful lot about where to even enter things into the interface. As AlphaFive is not a mainstream product in the bookstores, I believe it is imperative for the marketing gurus At AlphaSoftware to get more examples done like this. Again from my yesteryears, I remember how magazines used to have sections of code each month that added on to the previous months installation. If Alpha followed this method, in short order they could have something quite useful for anyone to start with. The sample app in the docs (I think it was AlphaMovies) has so many mistakes in it that it becomes frustrating for a new user.
As for the current docs, they are mostly technical docs and not really a "help" manual as so many tend to call it. This is an area that needs to be seriously looked at in my mind. For Alpha to call their product able to be used by non-programmers, then they need to start catering better to that market. After a few years of using it, I do believe it to be very powerful without doing any real programming. But it took a long while for me to figure out what I have.
The current docs are quite behind the time as the last update was now a year ago. So many things have changed since then (like a new version) that it really should be dealt with. Someone needs to be dealing with everything that is sent to the link in the docs for updates. For those that have sent in corrections, it seems like you are wasting your time and hinders them from continuing to do so. When there was a person in charge of the documentation, updates were quite regular. I think that Alpha will have to consider this position with a lot more urgency considering what some members have said recently.
This also brings up another point to be thought about - AlphaSoftware is not a big company. This does seriously limit what it is that they can do and they have to decide where there resources are best used. I think that it is quite well known that we are all pushing for more help in the documentation and education areas. And my own specific requests would be to update the technical docs that are already there and then to expand greatly in the area of further samples.
As for the forum, it is the greatest resource there is right now for help. And all those that answer questions, right or wrong, at least shows that everyone is trying to help one another as there is always more than one way to look at a problem. I just want to thank all those people who have taken their time to respond as I have learnt so much from everyones questions and answers and look forward to reading many more in the future. At the same time, this might be a good time to call out on all those other people who like to use this forum but return very little in return to others questions. We all need to participate to make this fairer to all involved.
I eagerly await Steve Woods post as I am sure that it will be done with all the professionalism and articulate thinkng that he usually exhibits in all his posts and documentation that he has made available for download. He has a much broader knowledge of AlphaFive than most of us and his post should be good food for thought for all of us to comment on.
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