Welcome to Dolphin Smalltalk

I've been working through the introductory help stuff.  A few small comments.

Having the tip of the day appear on top of the welcome text presents a rather
odd appearance to someone firing up Dolphin for the first time.  Not a big
deal, but if there's a 5-minute fix to make the tip-'o-the-day appear only if
the help isn't open or only appear starting at the second startup, then that
might be worthwhile.

It's sad that the 'active' introduction has gone away.  (I understand the
reasons, but it's still sad.)

Selecting pink example text from the first splash, and pasting it into a
workspace produces double-spaced lines.  The standard (and automatic -- for me)
Ctrl+C keyboard accelerator does not work.  Inconvenient.

The "Sorting and Inspecting Things" page states that if you want to see all the
classes in the list, then you should use an Inspector.  Rather confusingly the
Inspector /doesn't/ show all 2111 classes, but also truncates the list after
the first 200...

The introduction to cascades ("Play a Sound" page) would probably be
significantly clearer if the example code was laid out to emphasise it:
    (Sound fromFile: 'blahblah.wav')
        woofAndWait;
        woofAndWait.

"Initialising an Array"  I don't think the #collect: example helps.  If the
idea is to introduce #collect: then it needs more explanation (or at least an
indication of where and when that explanation will be forthcoming).  Otherwise,
I suggest, it's more confusing than helpful.

On the next page "Win the Lottery" the second paragraph is in a small font,
indicating that it is supplementary material, when it is actually the main body
of the lesson.  Same goes for the page after that.

    -- chris

Chris,

> Having the tip of the day appear on top of the welcome text presents
> a rather odd appearance to someone firing up Dolphin for the first
> time.  Not a big deal, but if there's a 5-minute fix to make the
> tip-'o-the-day appear only if the help isn't open or only appear
> starting at the second startup, then that might be worthwhile.

Ok, I'll see if the TOD can be skipped immediately after the unlock.

> It's sad that the 'active' introduction has gone away.  (I understand
> the reasons, but it's still sad.)

True, but I think the new help based scheme is better than the drab
workspace with no rich text. It does also afford the opportunity to
provide more information and break the session up into separate
sections.
>
> Selecting pink example text from the first splash, and pasting it
> into a workspace produces double-spaced lines.  The standard (and
> automatic -- for me) Ctrl+C keyboard accelerator does not work.
> Inconvenient.

Hmm.. yes but I don't see how to fix that. I usually highlight the text
and drag it across to the workspace.

>
> The "Sorting and Inspecting Things" page states that if you want to
> see all the classes in the list, then you should use an Inspector.
> Rather confusingly the Inspector doesn't show all 2111 classes, but
> also truncates the list after the first 200...

Ok, I've suggested looking in the RH pane which does show all the
classes.

>
> The introduction to cascades ("Play a Sound" page) would probably be
> significantly clearer if the example code was laid out to emphasise
> it:      (Sound fromFile: 'blahblah.wav')
>         woofAndWait;
>         woofAndWait.

Fixed.

> "Initialising an Array"  I don't think the #collect: example helps.
> If the idea is to introduce #collect: then it needs more explanation
> (or at least an indication of where and when that explanation will be
> forthcoming).  Otherwise, I suggest, it's more confusing than helpful.

Fixed.

> On the next page "Win the Lottery" the second paragraph is in a small
> font, indicating that it is supplementary material, when it is
> actually the main body of the lesson.  Same goes for the page after
> that.

Fixed.

Thanks for the comments.

--
Andy Bower
Dolphin Support
www.object-arts.com

Hi Andy,

> Hmm.. yes but I don't see how to fix that. I usually highlight the text
> and drag it across to the workspace.

I have seen this done with "Copy to Clipboard" buttons. I assume javascript
is used to implement this. This would do the trick:

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/javascript/article.php/3458851

On another matter, on the "Newcomers Start Here" page you have "Smalltalk
Beginner™". Is the phrase "Smalltalk Beginner" a trademark?

Steve
--
Steve Waring
[hidden email]