Delphi document files
Dave Nottage
http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,27583,00.html
by John Kaster on the files that are all too often ignored by users.
Any suggestions as to why people can't be bothered reading them?
--
Dave Nottage
http://www.fruit.on.net <- Touring the US this summer.
Alessandro Federici
news:3b6c6fbd_2@dnews...
> I noticed this article:
> Any suggestions as to why people can't be bothered reading them?
Yeah! You hit the nail on the head!
Programmers don't read documentation ;-)
They click F1 when something doesn't work as expected.
Glynn
products, we want some." That's not hard to understand - it's just hard
to take seriously. Few of us can afford to consult with a lawyer before
making use of what we purchased.
Glynn
Dave Nottage
> They click F1 when something doesn't work as expected.
I think I see your point: the info should either be in the help, or the help
should refer to the files in thirty-foot-high letters of fire.
Alessandro Federici
> "Alessandro Federici" wrote:
> > They click F1 when something doesn't work as expected.
>
> I think I see your point: the info should either be in the help, or the
help
> should refer to the files in thirty-foot-high letters of fire.
Option 1 would help. The second wouldn't <G>
John Elrick
> I noticed this article:
>
> http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,27583,00.html
>
> by John Kaster on the files that are all too often ignored by users.
>
> Any suggestions as to why people can't be bothered reading them?
Jef Raskin and Alan Cooper would have a lot to say - starting with the fact
that the user isn't being paid to read those files. The information should
be in front of their noses when and where they need it.
This isn't a criticism - I've had to issue important readme's also - but a
fact of life. We may not like it, but complaining doesn't get the user
reading. Nor really should the user feel guilty about not having read them.
After being bombarded with hundreds of virtually useless readmes etc, who
could blame them.
Mark Miller has the interesting idea that the first time you run his plugin
wizard, you get full instructions on what to do with the option to turn
those instructions off in the future. He then embeds the important part of
the instructions into the newly created unit as comments at the top.
The removal of proxies is an interesting example. Looking at context, the
compilation is for a package. How hard would it have been to have included
in the upgrade utility (upgrades the package to the current version) a quick
search for the offending unit and (if found) a full explanation error coming
up during conversion. Or just adding a simple handler that searches the
error for the word "proxies.dcu" and reports the solution.
John Elrick
Alexander S. Tereschenko
It is not funny. It is 100% true.
<g>
--------------------------------
Alexander S. Tereschenko
al...@plastiqueweb.com
http://alext.plastiqueweb.com/
Steve Griffiths
Steve Griffiths
"Dave Nottage" <da...@removethis.b3.com.au> wrote in message
news:3b6c6fbd_2@dnews...
John Kaster (Borland)
> up during conversion. Or just adding a simple handler that searches the
> error for the word "proxies.dcu" and reports the solution.
Like Steve Trefethen's compiler warnings wizard?
http://homepages.borland.com/strefethen/
--
John Kaster, Borland Developer Relations, http://community.borland.com
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John Elrick
news:3B730474...@borland.com...
> John Elrick wrote:
> > up during conversion. Or just adding a simple handler that searches the
> > error for the word "proxies.dcu" and reports the solution.
>
> Like Steve Trefethen's compiler warnings wizard?
> http://homepages.borland.com/strefethen/
Exactly. I saw that a few days later.
Great concept!
John