How do you work!?

Silly question… to a silly thought!

I’ve noticed that even smaller threads on this forum get a huge amount of hits, or “views” as listed. Even after three days, a thread with 4, 5, 6 posts can have some 5-6-700 views. It depends, of-course. You know it.

Now the Q:
I find the Help section inside Xojo extremely stupid, slow and un-usefull. It keeps connecting…again and again in endless loops… to something and I don’t understand why. (I have a provocative tired computer that add significant to the bad user experience…)

So, I use the provided URL, documentation.xojo.com and there I look for … well, help.
But on this location, there are almost no views to each post! A post almost two years old can have less than 1.000 views.

I just wonder, am I the only person using the on-line docs on a daily basis!? I truly doubt it… Or, are the views counted different in the on-line dos than the views in the forum!?

I usually use the built-in (offline) documentation. See Xojo Preferences > General > Use built-in documentation

[quote=156489:@Jakob Krabbe]
So, I use the provided URL, documentation.xojo.com and there I look for … well, help.
But on this location, there are almost no views to each post! A post almost two years old can have less than 1.000 views.[/quote]
I’m not sure what you’re looking at because any page I visit at documentation.xojo.com has thousands of views. For example, the String datatype page at http://documentation.xojo.com/index.php/String has apparently been accessed almost 30000 views at the time of writing, according to the bottom of the page.

Given the number of times questions are asked here that have a very simple answer in documentation.xojo.com chances are a significant number of users simply do not bother looking into it…

Easier to have someone else spoon feed you than to learn how to cook :wink:

Any time I have a question, I go straight to the browser and open documentation.xojo.com. I rarely search the forums, probably because the search results are usually, well, less than helpful. I guess I just haven’t figured out the right incantation.

Google search with site:forum.xojo.com.

Esotalk search is a mess.

Sometimes I don’t even restrict the search with site:
I’ll just put in my curiosity and the word Xojo, and Google will get me good results from even the old forum and the mbs nug archive. I change my search method depending on how complex my issue is and the results I’m trying to get (code vs. explanations, etc)

I also search with Google. Mostly place the word “xojo” first then with the search string I am looking for in as few words possible.

When I really want to learn something about a subject, I put the words “How to” after Xojo.

When I am actually developing in Xojo and need more information about a keyword or command, I just look in the reference first.

That is how I do it.

I use Dash. Highly recommended to all Mac users, and I think there is something similar for Windows.

I just use the help button for online access to the docs pages and search these forums. Sometimes I want to look at a blog post on the Xojo Site & finding that can be a PITA.

I also search!
I hit this forum, the old realbasic forum as well as other forums. In google, using xojo as keyword.

There are some pages in the docs that has a reasonable high level of hits. But also, there are very many that has surprisingly few hits! Well. Just a thought!

My impression is that the build in Help is not an off-line feature.
Well, if you say so, then why does it pretend to act as it’s not!? It should be lightning-fast… and it’s not! After all, it’s not that much text…!

Maybe I’m the only person finding on-line service connecting faster than off-line built in search!?

How sad… Well. At least, I can live with that!
Thank you for taking the time to read and reply!

I just Google it or the offline docs also
Its usually the terminology that gets me being mainly a C# & .NET type of guy
Often what I need to know worked in Real Basic so there’s loads of possible answers
To be far to Xojo in general whatever I use I find better answers than I would with QT for example, this can change dramatically between versions and not very newbie friendly forum

Remember: 2/3 of the world population does not have access to the internet.

And in the countries where Internet is available, do not assume everyone have an Internet access at home (what about at work ?)

Good point.
I don’t like when people are “forced” to use Internet, with no option.
Because even if you have Internet, you may choose the megabytes!
I have had mobile broadband and the current limit is 10 GB / month. (I think. it varies. Or, maybe 20 GB…? )

I really dislike sites, news papers for example, when you think you click on a text-link and a heavy streaming video will start by default when opening the page!

Same with Xojo. Since I don’t know what the off-line docs are doing in the background, the on-line version is more pleasant because in the browser all connectivity is presented nice and clean at the bottom of the browser. Same today as 20-25 years ago! :slight_smile:

Sometimes the lack of development is more tempting!! :slight_smile: (Sometimes, that is!!)

@Emile: even in France there is internet - I suppose :slight_smile: Most people are now online ALL THE TIME.

I search in documentation.xojo.com first. If I can’t find anything there I ask the Google.

What I totally hate: had a problem, found a solution, didn’t document anything proper why and what. Then I have the problem again and the first hit is my question from a couple of months ago.

[quote=156548:@Jakob Krabbe]I also search!
I hit this forum, the old realbasic forum as well as other forums. In google, using xojo as keyword.

There are some pages in the docs that has a reasonable high level of hits. But also, there are very many that has surprisingly few hits! Well. Just a thought!

My impression is that the build in Help is not an off-line feature.
Well, if you say so, then why does it pretend to act as it’s not!? It should be lightning-fast… and it’s not! After all, it’s not that much text…!

Maybe I’m the only person finding on-line service connecting faster than off-line built in search!?

How sad… Well. At least, I can live with that!
Thank you for taking the time to read and reply![/quote]
For bare in mind that the Xojo documentation is powered by MediaWiki. MediaWiki requires use of PHP on the server-side when your online. I am not sure how it works offline though, it is possibly a localhost (just a guess). So I don’t think you are simply waiting for just a static HTML document.

http://velocity.silverlakesoftware.com/

I use dash (both MacOSX and iOS) for reading the docs (aka man pages for the old school people). And when I need advice or suggestions, I use the forums. Between the two I get most of what I need.

thank you for both dash (dockset) and the forums.

sb

Its reading the page source from a database
For 2014r3.1 on OS X It’s in ~/Library/Application Support/Xojo/Xojo/Xojo 2014r3.1/OfflineHelp/XojoLangRefDB
Similar locations for Windows & Linux
Sets up all the CSS for it and the images etc
Then shows it to you

I think the LR would be more useful if it was more integrated into the IDE. I’d like it showing in its own pane in the IDE, with the ability to show/hide it with a keyboard shortcut, as we can do with the Inspector.

But as this might be a bigger project, I suggested a stopgap measure of having the LR searchfield into the main Xojo IDE toolbar. This would increase visibility (and hopefully usage) of the LR to everyone, particular newbies. Here is the Feedback case: <https://xojo.com/issue/34777>