CompuServe Messages

Steve, I think you've put your finger on why this is so frustrating. Impulse software is great, but you can't really take advantage of it without an enormous investment of time. I'd rather pay a couple of hundred dollars more for comprehensive documentation. And I'm talking about nothing more than a complete and accurate explanation of how the tools work. I don't expect a treatise on how to achieve every conceivable effect. I expect some are many who have the time to experiment and would prefer trial and error to paying for documentation, so comprehensive docs may be something that should be optional. I don't think this need is likely to be filled by third parties, since the author of a real reference manual needs to be intimately familiar with the program — i.e., with the source code. Even the Impulse manuals seems to be more-or-less afterthoughts provided by talented outsiders without access to adequate information. Many software developers feel they should spend more money/time on the docs than the code — and base the code on the docs (if it's hard to explain, we probably need to rework the code). I suspect Impluse isn't among them. Good luck with Foundation. I expect it's a fine program, if you can figure out how to use it. — Bill