#ApAssist
10 messages in this thread
There is a hypertext manual – point at what you have questions about,
press the Amiga HELP key, and you're on the correct page of the manual.
The manual is extensively indexed, contains pictures, etc – this isn't
CBM's lame "AmigaGuide", but a complete online documentation system we
developed specifically to avoid the pitfalls of printed documentation. We
won't be supplying printed manuals again – ever – for ANY product. They're
unmaintainable dinosaurs – expensive, clumsy and outdated.
Should a customer wish a printout, they can get one by simply telling the
hypertext system what they want. But all in all, it's a 100% waste of
paper, ink, and time. :^)
One of the things that *I* love about the new documentation system is that
when something falls short of perfect nd needs to be fixed, we can do it
_instantly_. When we add a new capability (which we do more often than ANY
of the competition, btw) we can have it 100% in the docs and ready to go.
There's quite a bit more to like about it, and very little to dislike…
the beta testers reactions have ranged from positive to slobbering happy.
:^)
The docs currently amount to about 2 megs of information. The next release
of them is almost double that – more _actual information_ provided to the
customer than any image manipulation system out there today – and it's one
heck of a lot more accessable than it would be in printed form.
Thanks for asking. :^)
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
The Hypertext manual sounds, like a winner. Will look forward to seing
it.
Forrest
Amiga products that come without printed documentation are almost worthless to
me. I like to read the whole manual when I have some quiet time (like on the
train to and from work or at 2am when that 3 hour render job is finally under
way) and since there is no such thing as a laptop Amiga, I have to be glued to
my machine to RTFM. Besides, on-line manuals are rarely as good as the printed
ones (UNIX man pages excepted: they're identical). After writing two on-line
manuals myself, I've figured out why: on-line manual authors get into the same
"instant gratification" mindset that most users are normally in, leading to a
big blob of procedural information that lacks detail. Manual writing is very,
very boring. Couple that with the short attention span that on-line help
systems force on you and you end up with glop.
I do like on-line docs as long as they supplement the full manual. Prompts that
help you remember the details of a command/procedure are very helpful as most
people will know how they want to do something but they often forget the
details of the "how".
The printed word may be cumbersome (and expensive too), but it is still the
easiest way to document some things. Besides, manuals don't suffer from drive
crashes, power failures, or your spouse's fumble-fingered attempts to free up
some space for her shopping list.
BTW, I disagree with your dismissal of AmigaGuide. I'm writing a off-line
message reader with it as the display end. It's actually pretty flexible if you
take the time to learn it. But then, you march to the drum of a different
beater <:-)
Dave –
I don't know much about Ben's products (Have never had a need to own or
use them, but maybe someday). But I have heard Ben's discription of his
Hypertext software. A few months ago we had a good thread on the
differences between C='s 'AmigaGuide' and Black Belt's product.
My point here is to just say that maybe you should learn a little
more about Black Belts program before you rave awhole lot about
AmigaGuide.
And I think maybe you might be alittle short sighted about the future
of the written word. We may all find ourselves soon in an age of Online
Text. It's comming on us fast and the paperless age that we have all
talked about for years (You know the "Computer age and the Paperless
Office") with CDrom's and all and gigabyte harddrives is here.
Please don't take me wrong, but Ben did say that you could always print
out the manual (or parts thereof) yourself. So I really don't think just
because the product does not have a manual it makes it " worthless ". I
think Ben's product sounds exicting and I wish I had a need for IM – oh I
could probably find a need for it alright, if I only had the money for
it :)\
You know, maybe I too feel alittle sad about the future of not having
hard bound manuals lying around, sitting and filling my shelves and
collect a pile of dust on all edges. I too, like to read manuals from
start to finish when I get new stuff. But, you know what…, once I read
said manual then it goes up on that shelf and sits. Cause I've learned
the program and don't need that big book anymore. So maybe an online
manual is the way to go – know what I mean. Maybe some time in the
future I'll take the shelves down and put pictures up there 😉
OnLine since 1982
Roy Pahnke – Casper WY
Roy:
I know what you mean by the future of printed documentation. Already,
I tend to lose the printed manual within days of opening the box (the name
Chaocity sort of hints at my ability to organize in a paper universe
<grin>) but online manuals are fastideously backed up and available at the
touch of the mouse. Of course, I would _love_ a laptop Amiga for travel.
<grin> I think Ben is on the leading edge of this technology, and there
will be some who find it uncomfortable.
Clint <Chaocity>
Clint –
Yes, Ben is leading the way with his commitment to Disk Based manuals.
And yes some will be uncomfortable. Calling a program useless – sight
unseen was a little rash I thought and had to say something.
I to and a bunch of other would love an Amy Laptop. To bad it's not
about a million other though ;(
OnLine since 1982
Roy Pahnke – Casper WY
I remember Ben's postings about his hyper-text system. I was just pointing out
that AmigaGuide is not as bad as Ben paints it to be. AmigaGuide has one big
thing in it's favor though: it's free. I certainly wouldn't classify my posting
as a "rave".
You must have more patience than I do since you can live with on-line-only
documentation. The technology hasn't gotten quick enough for me yet. I get
frustrated waiting for pages to be rendered. You are correct though: paper docs
are doomed. I'll hang on to my books though. They'll keep me busy during the
thunderstoms…
Re thunderstorms… I use a continuous duty sine-wave UPS. :^) Keeps me
working no matter what.
One thing though, I sure as heck wish there was an Amiga laptop, so I
could retire my 486 laptop. I think CBM has entirely blown the estimate of
how well such an item would sell.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
AMEN! (laptop Ami)
-bill
Well, those are some interesting points. Let me respond to them
individually.
You make the point that you like to read manuals off-line… on the train,
etc. For this, we've provided the ability to print any portion of the
documentation; a single subject, an entire group of subjects, or the
entire manual. This has some drawbacks, for instance the images don't get
printed, but the Amiga printer device does support bold and italics and
the like so emphasis is in there. The advantage is that we avoid the waste
of a huge paper consumption to serve that comparatively rare need.
Frankly, most computer users don't want to read manuals at all – and I'm
quite certain of that, after publishing quite a raft of Amiga software in
the past 8 years or so.
You make the point that online manuals are not as comprehensive as printed
manuals. Well, not in this case. :^) Furthermore, we'll be adding a great
deal more to it shortly. What we initially shipped was essentially the
reference portion, except for the morphing tutorials, which were already
done in another context.
I don't dismiss AmigaGuide the way you're using it – although I expect you
could write a much better offline message reader using ApAssist,
considering as it has many, many more document capabilities than
AmigaGuide does, plus works on 2.04 and onwards with all of those
capabilities functioning, plus has some really cool ARexx stuff. :^) Where
I *do* dismiss AmigaGuide is as a good tool to write online documentation
with… I've used it extensively and It's just not anywhere near as good.
Mind you, it's completely unacceptable to me to write docs that can only
be read as written on a 3.0 based machine. 3.0 not even released to the
general public, much less in common use.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot