Newbie Perspective - AS adoption/Starter Kit
Newbie Perspective - AS adoption/Starter Kit
- Subject: Newbie Perspective - AS adoption/Starter Kit
- From: email@hidden
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 12:26:07 -0500
- Priority: normal
I've tried to stay out of this, but I can't resist. I'm one of those
"non-educated" programmers (and isn't that what ASing is, programming?)
The reason I jumped into AS is because, as others have pointed out, I
stumbled across references to it several times and figured it could save
me lots of time/effort. The original introductions & documentation I ran
into addressed me (me being a user, not a programmer) specifically and I
thought "Alright! Programming for the masses"... I was right and wrong.
Question: How do you increase adoption of AS?
Answer: Get first-time owners/users to USE it.
Question: How do you get first-time owners/users to use AS?
Answer: Make it simple to understand and easy to use.
Question: Why would this increase adoption of AS?
Answer: For years I have impressed my PC friends by the ease with which I
perform simple tasks on my Mac they typically struggle with. I can't wait
to run a really useful script and watch their mouths hang open in wonder.
Question: Why would their mouths hang open?
Answer: Because they would be wondering how impressed THEIR friends will
be after running useful AppleScripts on their own NEW Mac computers.
Question: How many new first-time Apple owners will download 10 or 20 MB
worth of pdf manuals/language guides/etc. and read them all to learn AS.
Answer: Probably none.
Remember AS Gurus, the majority of us "users" wouldn't know a variable
from a vitamin (I've learned to swallow both). Also, many non-technical
users may never fully understand the concepts. I agree with the idea of a
"Starter Kit" and a more accessable implementation for those users who
just booted up an Apple computer for the first time.
Conclusion: Organize the stuff in the help guide menus better and provide
more basics. People will use AS if they think they can quickly learn it.
Don't expect them to spend 6 hours finding a simple & understandable lay
definition for "String" and "Expression". To them, those are things on
their shoes and faces.
Well, I sure stayed out of this... Jerry me