[REBOL] REBOL might be easy, but not with this documentation
From: rebolmikko:yaho:o at: 18-Oct-2001 3:14
I'm reporting my very early experiences as a REBOL
programmer - although I have read about the progress
with the language several years, I just hours ago
started to program my first scripts.
The problem with programming REBOL is that the
documentation lacks. It is well written sort of and I
guess everything is there, BUT: it clearly shows that
someone too familiar with the language has written it.
Let's take the problem I solved just minutes ago as
example: I wanted to have a window with no borders and
no title. I had no idea what to do. I looked at quite
many documents, such as the beginner's guide to
REBOL/View, but no help. After some time I tried the
command-line help (I didn't read about command line
help anywhere, I just tried it because many systems
have such thing). Ok, I had already knowledge about
view-command, so I instantly saw that I had to use
refinements
. So I tried: "view/options [no-title
no-border] layout[...". After some more time I finally
found an example by using altavista search
+view/options +rebol
from codeconscious.com, which
showed that "[no-title no-border]" must come after the
layout block.
Ok, so I didn't read the manuals very well before
starting to program - but how many does? I understand
that REBOL Technologies might not have huge resources
to put on writing the documentation. But how about
adding a possibility to send short scripts with errors
to rebol.com and using them as a material for
producing a better error parser (the current one isn't
very good, you admit?)?
I guess my personal problems will go away with the
books I have ordered, but not all of the millions of
programmers you are trying to lure to use REBOL will
buy a book... 8)
Cheers,
Mikko Mäkelä
