[ic] Beima's Response!
John Beima
jbeima@reality.palb.com
Sun, 01 Apr 2001 21:20:14 -0600 (MDT)
G'Day Christopher,
You know I have been tossing the idea over and over of writing a book on
Interchange/Minivend or offering to teach classes on it. Ever since Akopia
released their first version of the documentation.
The reason this came up after Akopia took over, was every new version that Mike
put out, always revealed a little more... Opened a few more hidden doors. All
the Akopia versions have done is re-word it and explain nothing more. In fact I
have found those releases to be a waste of paper (No offence to Akopia! I always
take the pod files to a printer to have professionally printed book versions.
The releases from Akopia really didn't need to be printed...)...
Let me say this to start with.... Even though the documentation does explain
pretty much everything, it is made from the stand point of a Perl programmer.
Just about every question you have asked is explained in those files... Except
for the report/receipt.html files. Which ironicly has been one of the best
questions I have seen on the list in the last several months...
Also as it has always been stated... The demos are just that demos. They are NOT
completed stores, they are there for you to look at pull appart and guide you to
writting your own, or to be modified and completed to suite your needs...
Just like when I started with this list >3-4< YEARS ago this was a great place
to deal with complicated challanges. There has been good coding examples to
solve real problems that teach you how to use the mml/iml language itself.
Don't confuse a simple Markup Language with mml or iml. They are extremely
powerful Markup Languages. In some ways even more powerful that PHP, when used
correctly.
However getting back on topic, when I have some time this week, I will answer
your questions, and help you on the road to being that Interchange Expert...
Then maybe the list can get back to REAL challanges instead of silly little
things...
John Beima
Quoting Christopher VanOosterhout <chris@vanoosterhout.com>:
>
> John,
>
> Thanks for the offer. You suggested that if there is a question about
> how
> to use the documentation, then we should ask. I appreciate your offer.
> I
> think that may be helpful to a lot of us. InterChange seems to be a
> great
> program and I am really enjoy working with it. I have read through ever
>
> single page of the documentation on the Red Hat interchange site (the
> six
> PDF documents) ... and very frankly Jim is right that the references in
> the
> documentation do not relate directly to the software package currently
> being distributed. There is a lot of reference to simple and another
> sample store that does not exist in the current distribution (at least
> as
> far as I can see).
>
> I know that in the open source world we have to be willing to dig in and
> do
> some learning for our self ... and I want to do that. However since you
>
> have suggested that we ask about how to use the documentation, I would
> like
> to take you up on this. Maybe then we would not waste so much of your
> time
> with issues that we should be able to find in the documentation if we
> only
> had the training.
>
> One of the topics that you may want to illustrate on is the topic of
> email
> confirmation to the customer. In the FAQ online it says to look into
> the
> documentation. In the documentation there is a simple three line
> statement
> talking about how we should use the [mail...] tag ... the problem is
> that
> in my searching both of the Web site and the pdf documentation there is
> no
> details that I can find on the use of the [mail...] tag (and yes I
> understand that the dos are not literal. Any while I have started my
> store
> on the path of using the confirmation provided in construct, I have no
> idea
> how it is happening or what actually envokes it ... For instance why is
> the
> report. file used instead of the receipt.html file. Things like that
> ...
> and simply what are the options for this feature.
>
> I understand there is no obligation for anyone to answer any of these
> questions ... I know that you folks are all busy and if you can not or
> choose not to answer I understand and will continue to struggle along.
> I
> am not trying to get a free ride ... in fact I would like to contribute
> and
> help any way that I can ... and maybe the best way to start is learning
> more about how the experts suggest we use the documentation.
>
> I appreciate all of your expertise and help.
>
> Christopher Van Oosterhout
>
>
>
> >The documentation is actaually very good and very helpfull, once it
> sets in on
> >how Mike has written it. Which can be confusing... Then ask HOW to use
> the
> >documentation.
> >
> >Simply put questions that are ignored are most likely do to the fact
> they have
> >been asked 50 times before or they are simply in the documentation if
> you read
> >it...
> >
> >I am tired of getting 20 messages a day from people who want a free
> ride.
> >If you
> >plan on installing Interchange and then selling your services to the
> public,
> >then the least you can do is READ THE DOCUMENTATION from start to
> finish!
> >
> >Also it has become more and more anoying people saying "Hey this is a
> >bug!" when
> >it is in fact a feature put there, that is they took to the time to
> READ THE
> >DOCUMENTATION they would know why it is happeneing...
> >
> >Frankly quit wasting the lists bandwidth and time with questions that
> are
> >answered in the documentation...
> >
> >John Beima
> >
> >
> >
> >Quoting Jim Balcom <jim@idk-enterprises.com>:
> >
> > > On Sun, 1 Apr 2001, John Beima wrote:
> > >
> > > JB>>Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2001 14:52:20 -0600 (MDT)
> > > JB>>From: John Beima <jbeima@reality.palb.com>
> > > JB>>Reply-To: interchange-users@lists.akopia.com
> > > JB>>To: interchange-users@lists.akopia.com
> > > JB>>Subject: Re: [ic] Construct Us Demo Colors (Need to convert to a
> > > JB>> variable)
> > > JB>>
> > > JB>>Actually my last resoonce to you applies here to... Read the
> > > documentation...
> > >
> > > Frankly, I would much prefer to deal with the non-responses that I
> have
> > > been (not) getting to my questions than to have to deal with
> smarta**
> > > answers like yours.
> > >
> > > I don't know what documentation you have, but I downloaded, printed
> out
> > > and bound the documentation that came in the PDF format. It has no
> > > comparison to anything that I am seeing on my computer! I don't
> find
> > > it to be useful at all. I've been programming for 23 years, and
> writing
> > > in C for 15 years. I can't begin to comprehend the frustration that
> > > newcomers are having to go through when I consider the frustration
> > > level that I am at.
> > >
> > > And, then to see your smarta** response!
> > >
> > > -= Jim =-
> > >
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > > Jim's Linux-Operated Underground Bomb Shelter
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Tagline for Sunday, April 01, 2001 at 17:00 PM:
> > > All I need to know I learned from my cat.
> > >
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > > This Linux System has been up 45 hours
> > >
> > > My web page: http://www.idk-enterprises.com
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Interchange-users mailing list
> > > Interchange-users@lists.akopia.com
> > > http://lists.akopia.com/mailman/listinfo/interchange-users
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >John Beima
> >jbeima@palb.com, support@alocalagent.com, and support@alocalchurch.com
> >
> >P.A.L.B. Systems - Phone: (780)451-1086 - Fax: (780)447-4760
> >11639-122 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T5M 0B6
> >
> >Affordable Web Pages - Phone: (888)932-9990 - Fax: (256)351-7297
> >2713B Spring Place SW, Decatur, Alabama, United States, 35603
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Interchange-users mailing list
> >Interchange-users@lists.akopia.com
> >http://lists.akopia.com/mailman/listinfo/interchange-users
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Interchange-users mailing list
> Interchange-users@lists.akopia.com
> http://lists.akopia.com/mailman/listinfo/interchange-users
>
John Beima
jbeima@palb.com, support@alocalagent.com, and support@alocalchurch.com
P.A.L.B. Systems - Phone: (780)451-1086 - Fax: (780)447-4760
11639-122 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T5M 0B6
Affordable Web Pages - Phone: (888)932-9990 - Fax: (256)351-7297
2713B Spring Place SW, Decatur, Alabama, United States, 35603