Re: RDi learning curve

On 6/25/2013 1:13 PM, Terry Hertel wrote:

I have to agree that there is a big learning curve with the product.

Everyone says so; it must be true. And yet I myself can't remember it
being difficult.

It takes a while to get proficient with all of the functions, shortcuts, and preferences. There was little documentation when it was introduced, and the help text usually isn't very helpful.

This is the part I understand the least. Clearly, you don't mean *all*
the functions, *all* the shortcuts and *all* of the preferences; rather
you must mean 'all the stuff I now use.' Which makes sense. Beginners
use a small subset of the tooling, experts use more. But why is this
considered an obstacle? I have a theory. Beginners are left alone, or
want to be left alone to grind through it themselves. There are
tutorials but few seem to stumble on them. Maybe we're the lot who like
to do things without cracking the manual.

The next time someone here wants to try RDi, I'm going to set up RDi
Lite for him. Close all views except for RSE and the editor, save it as
a custom perspective. Create a few connexions and filters and only then
explain how to open, edit and compile a source member. After a while we
can add in more functionality.

Even simple things can be difficult to figure out at first. For example, how many times have we had or seen questions about topics as simple as copy and paste, etc.?

Isn't the 5250 emulator the odd duck when it comes to pasting? What
other Windows app behaves that way?

That is why it is frustrating for the new user. I was fortunate that I got to evaluate the product as a project and was therefore given the time to work with it without the pressure of a production deadline. I've been using the product in its various forms since WDSC, and I still learn things all the time. I even created a tips and reminders document because there is too much for me to remember. I hate working with SEU now but can remember the initial frustration with the IDE. BTW, I am one of those old fogies.

I had an 'Aha!' moment many, many years ago. Today, when I tell it, I
abbreviate it to this: RDi is not SEU with a funny accent. Don't try to
use SEU habits when using RDi, because RDi was never meant to be a GUI
version of SEU. RDi is a new thing, separate and different. On
purpose. After that Aha! SEU was easily the more frustrating editor for me.

If there's a lesson we can convey to newcomers, I think that's it.
--buck

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message: 2
date: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 10:46:33 -0400
from: Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: [WDSCI-L] RDi learning curve (was: RDi Lite?)

On 6/25/2013 9:58 AM, Ken Killian wrote:

Count me in as a BIG FAN of Rational Developer & Eclipse. But, the initial learning curve is HUGE! It is hard to get newbie productive on it right away....

I've been using multiple IDEs for so long (work, home) that I can't
remember what my learning curve was like. Although I would think that
if any of them had a *huge* learning curve, I'd have remembered it.
Maybe not.

What did you think made for a huge learning curve?
--buck