questions from a non-programmer

I'm an academic who has used Tinderbox from its inception, but I have
never been able unlock its power. After following this list for a
while, (and also some great conversations with Doug Miller) I've come
to realize that Tinderbox is really a programming environment, at
least that's where it's power lies. That why so many of you are
bloggers, people working in software development and consulting,
etc. This a a question on behalf of all the newbies who are not
programmers. Is there a basic skills set that would allow me to see
"under the hood" of Tinderbox and start to understand it's real
capabilities beyond a power outliner? I'm at the level of someone who
knows (barely) what a regex is, but has never written one (other than
one that Doug told me to put in a few fields). Maybe we non-
programmers are hopeless re Tinderbox, but I'd like to think it's not
so.
So my questions are twofold:
1) What are the basic (and I mean basic) programming skills that
someone wanting to learn Tinderbox should know? and
2) Are there good online tutorials on the web to learn these things?

This might help bridge the gap between power users and the rest of us.

Also, is there any sublist of academics who are using Tinderbox for
research and writing where books and journal articles are the main
goals? Would people be interesting in forming one? I know there has
been traffic in the past month (Emily, James, Rosemary). I am a
professor and am starting a large multi-year book project and would
like to build it in Tinderbox, but am not sure it's the most
efficient route. Conversation partners?

Thanks,
Lew Friedland
Director, Center for Communication and Democracy
Professor
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Department of Sociology
UW-Madison
821 University Ave.
Madison, WI 53706
Received on Wed Jan 4 14:25:13 2006