Gary's Blog

So do you get a "kick back" from Apple for the advertising?

Oops I meant to add it is interesting the acknowledgement on these videos that there is a problem for some/many users with finding the information that we require. Of course these videos help greatly.

Hi Steve,

> So do you get a "kick back" from Apple for the advertising?

No. Do you get one from MS for using Windows, or from Dell for using their laptops? :-)

> it is interesting the acknowledgement on these videos that there is a problem for some/many users with finding the information that we require

Where did you find such an acknowledgment? :-)

Different people gather information in different ways. The videos are certainly a good way to provide an introduction, but I'm sure while there are lots of our customers who like them, there are also others who wouldn't like to spend 25 minutes listening to me and Gary having fun if they could read two pages in the documentation to get the same information.

We want to help everybody as well as we can, and so we try to offer as much helpful material of different kinds as we manage to create. Good to hear you like it!

> Different people gather information in different ways. The videos are certainly a good way to provide an introduction, but I'm sure while there are lots of our customers who like them, there are also others who wouldn't like to spend 25 minutes listening to me and Gary having fun if they could read two pages in the documentation to get the same information.

That's why dual screen is nice so you're able to work on your XAF project one one screen and at the same time listen to Gary (and Oliver) having fun on another screen :-)

Nice video anyway, continue!

These video blogs are great!!! Keep up the good work. Have you ever considered a weekly webcast or podcast? Or in house training??? I could use for a week in Vegas!!!! lol

> No. Do you get one from MS for using Windows, or from Dell for using their laptops?

Actually if my clients quote a reference I do get a bit of commission on Dell machines...

> Where did you find such an acknowledgment?

No need to be defensive it was about a quarter the way in, and I quote: "if you know where to click in the model which is a bit of a discoverability issue I think"

As I said the videos are excellent, I also like good help files....

The problem is you (DeveloperExpress) are so prolific that keeping your documentation up to speed is probably a huge task. I totally agree however that 95% of the problem is a discoverability one which is where my original comment was coming from. When I want to do something I'm sure your components can do it but finding out how can be a difficult task - it reminds me of the early days of adventure games where most of the battle was knowing what words were understood by the parser:

"you are in a room there is a gun on the table"

> PICK UP THE GUN

"I don't understand"

> TAKE GUN

"There is no gun"

...

several hours later

...

>TAKE PISTOL

"You pick up the gun and notice it has no bullets - there are some bullets also on the table"

> AGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"I don't understand AGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Steve

Hi Steve,

Guess I'll have to contact Apple ;-)

> No need to be defensive it was about a quarter the way in, and I quote: "if you know where to click in the model which is a bit of a discoverability issue I think"

No worries - it was a tongue in cheek question. Of course we have discoverability problems sometimes and I'm not worried about pointing them out - was just wondering when I did so in the video. I remember saying what you quote :-)

The adventure parser example is a great one, although I was especially fond of Magnetic Scrolls games myself, which had a really fantastic parser. Something that comes to mind, not sure if anybody's familiar with ed - www.gnu.org/.../ed.msg.html

And if somebody comes forward and says yeah, that's exactly what working with DX is like, then he shall be cursed to work with ed for the rest of his days. :-)