[DUG] Delphi Help
Dave O'Brien
dave at ICCS.CO.NZ
Sun May 7 01:41:16 NZST 2006
I find the D2005 help to be particularly unhelpful. Some of the time,
pressing F1 on a standard keyword will come up with something useful
then doing the same thing again (within minutes) will come up with
nothing. This appears to be random to me.
The D2005 format is also somewhat annoying. I prefer the "ancient"
format. I also prefer a consistent answer when I ask for something...
David O'Brien
ICCS
P.O Box 1116
Palmerston North
027 442 1037
Computer sales and support services
Custom software design
-----Original Message-----
From: delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz [mailto:delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz]
On Behalf Of John Bird
Sent: Saturday, 6 May 2006 3:29 p.m.
To: 'Kyley Harris'; 'NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List'
Subject: [DUG] Delphi Help
I am not a pugnacious person, but this is one topic I would start a
fight
over.
A little more about the Unix Help - it has a standard format in a known
directory stucture. It covers many different areas from system calls to
3rd
party addon products and part of the automatic standard system is to
scan
all the help and build
A database summary of the help, commands, keywords from the help, and
which
sections it is in.
There are two commands for interrogating this summary database whatis
and
apropos
whatis apropos for instance prints a brief summary of the apropos
command, which section the full help is
apropos whatis searches the keywords and reports on anything similar
to
whatis, and where there is more help.
Even the Delphi 5 Help was split into Dephi Help and Delphi Win32 SDK,
and
you could not normally search both at once.
Windows Help systems have an index, but in probably half the cases it is
useless as the poor programmer does not know which word he is searching
for.
Saying the help system is not meant to provide this total is a cop out
in my
mind, its like half the index is missing. When you come across a Help
that
can be used from any direction you are so grateful and should learn the
lesson! The larger the system the more important this is, as
programmers
hold less and less of it in memory (so to speak)
Fortunately there is a way around this, but it should not be needed:
GIYF.
(Google GIYF if you don't know what it is)
How many times have I looked up topics like
Delphi IDE keyboard shortcuts
Delphi File i/o
When writing application help files for instance, most of the ones I had
to
do with were entirely full of
"How to do....." entries in the index: I quote a example. The entire
manual is like this:
How to input debtors transactions (No sales analysis) 48
How to input debtors transactions (With sales analysis) 52
How to generate debtors transactions (No sales analysis) 60
How to generate debtors transactions (With sales analysis) 64
How to void debtor transactions 69
How to post transactions 71
How to post external debtors transactions 72
How to consolidate ship-to bill-to accounts 73
How to produce debtors statements 75
How to produce a debtors trial balance 82
How to age a debtors ledger 88
How to create a debtors branch file 91
How to create a sales ledger 92
How to maintain sales ledger budgets 96
How to maintain sales ledger descriptions 98
How to produce sales ledger printouts 101
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Kyley Harris [mailto:kyley at harrissoftware.com]
Sent: Saturday, 6 May 2006 2:53 p.m.
To: johnkbird at paradise.net.nz; NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
Subject: RE: [DUG] Naming your code and Delphi Help
What you are talking about it Training, not help files. Helpfiles from a
technical perspective tend to be dry. They are informing a knowledgeable
person of the abilities of the tool. If you got a help file for a hammer
it
is going to outline all the qualities of the hammer, its head, density,
shape. It will explore the style of nail it is best suited for, or the
wooden pegs it is designed to pummel in. The help file for a hammer is
not
going to have a section: How to best build a garage using this hammer.
You
go to school to learn such practices.
I think you are expecting too much from the "help". I agree that the new
help files using the Microsoft help engine is absolute shit. When I
tried
2005 I found it slow and crappy. The old style help system was far more
preferable.
In saying that however. The example driven approach of the T-SQL help
file
for MSSQL is invaluable. So I can see what you are getting at.
>I meant he was a superb programmer seriously and also with a dry sense
of
>humour - his software worked fantastically, but in no way a team player
in
>making it easy for anyone to do anything with his code afterwards...
And I seriously meant that if no-one could understand what he did and he
isn't a team player, then by definition he cant be a superb programmer,
merely a skilled technical person.
-----Original Message-----
From: delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz [mailto:delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz]
On Behalf Of John Bird
Sent: Saturday, 6 May 2006 10:27 a.m.
To: 'NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List'
Subject: RE: [DUG] Naming your code and Delphi Help
I meant he was a superb programmer seriously and also with a dry sense
of
humour - his software worked fantastically, but in no way a team player
in
making it easy for anyone to do anything with his code afterwards...
Personally I have tended to rely also on help files (which discuss the
sorts
of operations users will follow), and software product descriptions,
which
usually should have a good description of how a system is put together.
HELP SYSTEMS
============
Can I put in my hobby horse about help systems, which Delphi needs to do
something about, as well as anyone using any large complex system: All
such
systems need more than a detailed description of what all the menu
entries
do, and detailed descriptions of each function. They also need to have
a
different view into the help of guiding a new user who doesn't know
where to
look or which commmands to use. The Delphi 5 Help was better in this
than
the D2006 Help (which has gone to more MS layouts).
Example:
In Delphi when I wanted to start doing a lot with file i/o I wanted to
read
up the best practice ways of doing this, and see what the main functions
are. In the Delphi 5 Help I at least found there are 3 main ways of
doing
file i/o, (1-Text File and untyped files, 2-TFileStream, 3-Windows
Handles
and Win32 API). However an indepth description of why there are 3 ways
and
the advantages of each and info on which approach the typical VCL
components
use (eg in loadfromfile methods) would have been useful - I had to trawl
though each to find which looked the most thoroughly implmented and ask
others...
In my mind exploring a help system I should be able to find topics like
What grids are best to use,
Best ways to do File i/o
Overview of using DataAware controls
Main points for using the IDE
Power features in the IDE
There is NO way to find help on those topics in the IDE. It's a mark
against getting a RAD system when you can't find the answer because you
don't know what question to ask ie what word to search for.
I was spoiled in early days by the help on Unix systems - despite its
reputation for unfriendliness the help system had one feature I have
yearned
for everywhere else: the apropos command, sort of like a Google on the
help.
You could type for instance "apropos network" or "apropos printing" or
"apropos /etc/passwd" and it would list all the help topics and areas
that
had information on this, in great concise detail. The integrated Help
system on a Unix machine can all be searched by one command (packages
all
installed their manuals into the systems help folders).
John
-----Original Message-----
From: delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz [mailto:delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz]
On
Behalf Of Kyley Harris
Sent: Friday, 5 May 2006 4:28 p.m.
To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
Subject: RE: [DUG] Naming your code
You beat me to it. I agree with most of John's statements about headers
etc.
and why you cant trust source control unless you will stick with it for
life
on the same system.
But Superb Programmer? Perhaps you meant Intelligent Person? There are
plenty of Geniuses, engineers, mathematicians etc, who all code because
it
helps their other jobs. Programming is a role itself, that does not
require
skills in all these other areas. A Suberb programmer should in the
least:
Write clean consistent code.
Write self documenting code.
Also write supplementary comments regarding complex self-documenting
code.
Understand the goal, before starting the task.
A Suberb programmer, does not need to know maths etc. This is all
available
in books and specs. A Suberb programmer knows how to take all the bits
and
pieces and turn it into maintainable, clean, bug free software. I am
guessing that most Delphi group people are a mixture of Programmer,
Self-manager, etc. Not everyone works corporate. But its important to
distinguish the skill of programming, aside from the skills of other
mixed
roles.
-----Original Message-----
From: delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz [mailto:delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz]
On Behalf Of Todd Martin
Sent: Friday, 5 May 2006 3:49 p.m.
To: johnkbird at paradise.net.nz; NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
Subject: Re: [DUG] Naming your code
I assume you're joking. That's not my idea of 'superb programming'.
> The extreme example was one package where the variables had different
names
> and declarations from one program to another, the programmer concerned
wrote
> not one single comment in his code, and liked naming variables with
names
> like B320 B330 B340 etc. He was a superb programmer who believed code
> should be read to find what it does, and also liked reading object
files
> directly.....if you are lucky you wouldn't be maintaining his code, it
was
> hard to improve in all senses.
>
> John
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz
[mailto:delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz]
On
> Behalf Of Richard Vowles
> Sent: Friday, 5 May 2006 12:53 p.m.
> To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
> Subject: RE: [DUG] Naming your code
>
>
> It should be in the version control check-in anyway so you know who to
> blame. The only reason it isn't in my code is I can't be bothered
putting
it
> there. It is there on templated code.
>
> (a dedicated subversion user).
>
> How about people change subject lines to match what we are talking
about.
> ---
> Richard Vowles, Solutions Architect, Borland New Zealand
> email: richard.vowles at borland.com
> phone: +64-9-9184573
> cell: +64-21-467747
> other: MSN richard.vowles at borland.com, skype: rvowles
> blog: http://www.usergroup.org.nz/blogs/selectBlog.html?id=39769
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz
[mailto:delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz]
> On Behalf Of Kyley Harris
> Sent: Thursday, 4 May 2006 11:42 p.m.
> To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
> Subject: RE: [DUG] In case you're interested (or buy stuff)
>
> Correct. Many companies that rely on contractors to fulfill work do
not
want
> temp employess, etc to see a name, and go tell the competition who
they
> should contact for good design work. So in that case it is valid to
request
> unsigned work. If you really want to assert that you wrote something.
Get
a
> reference in writing on letterhead that cannot be disputed by future
> managers, employees etc. Get the letter to state unequivocally what
input
> you had such as design, implementation, delployment. NEVER rely on an
> interviewer calling someone. I make a point of providing no verbal
> references unless that person giving the ref would die for me, or
close :D
>
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