[Tb] learning curve to[o] steep

Mark Smith wrote

>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.

I think that is part of it. I'm a software developer with a keen
interest in usability and API usability (designing programming
language libraries). I've read enough books that I therefore have
license to generalise below :-)

There is one "out of the box" experience that Tinderbox fumbles -
exporting a simple outline to HTML.

I regularly use BrainForest for outlining (mainly because it also
runs on Palm) and it does an elegant nested outline to HTML. Click
checkboxes if you want to omit any fields, press OK and bam you have
an outline. By default, choosing export is a one-click-success.

I haven't studied TB templates in detail but from postings here and
on the wiki my first reaction is that the template language directly
exposes a complex information model, requiring the user to think
about the nesting of their TB document.

People don't like to be forced to think.

The textual language of the templates is not bad, as template
languages go, but it is very confronting for people who are primarily
visual thinkers. I suspect TB's user base includes a lot of folk in
that category.

People feel very uncomfortable being forced to think in a different
mode when it is *just* to accomplish what should be a minor task.

-- 
Andy Dent BSc  MACS  AACM   http://www.oofile.com.au/
OOFILE - Database, Reports, Graphs, GUI for c++ on Mac, Unix & Windows
PP2MFC - PowerPlant->MFC portability