[Tb] learning curve to[o] steep

Hmm...

...should I or shouldn't I ? Ach WTH:

Just in case this gets lost in what follows: I love Tinderbox. I had great support from Mark when I hit a problem a while back. Tinderbox is, for me, a rare example of a piece of software which represents some truly great thinking. I'm not (currently) having any trouble with Tinderbox. I don't think the manual is inadequate. I don't even think Tinderbox is difficult to learn to use. Nothing in this post/ramble/rant is meant to denegrate it in any way whatsoever.

I do think though, that by being so open, flexible and extensible, that, for a lot of tasks for which Tinderbox is eminently applicable, users could find a more straightforward "narrower" (?) alternative in another application.

This may be the real (possibly the only ?) "problem". I suspect a lot of people probably start out looking for "an outliner" or "a notepad" or a "note/clipping/media/content management solution" and, if they read blogs and/or the more esoteric sites where software gets reviewed, they will not take long to discover that "professionals" "recommend" Tinderbox.

Whilst Tinderbox is undoubtedly the best solution for those who want to put their "notes" to work in a "dynamic" fashion, it seems likely to me, that a lot of users neither need this nor understand what its all about.

For such users, something like OmniOutliner (for "writing" stuff thats going to end up in something like TeX or DocBook or Keynote format or as an "AppleScriptable starting point" for "automating" notes and to do lists) or DEVONThink (as a general sortable/searchable repository for a wide variety of file types) or Circus Ponies Notebook (as something in between these two) probably makes more sense. Even those who want to throw the odd MindMap or FlowChart together from some notes will be adequately served by something like MyMind or NovaMind (or even the interplay between OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle).

What do other folks reckon ? Could it be that those who are having "difficulties" with Tinderbox are _typically_ those who don't really "need" it. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that.

0.02 etc.

mark.

-- 
Then:
       mark <mark__AT__imap-partners.net>
and now:
       mark smith <mark__AT__bbprojects.net>