Re: [Tb] questions from a non-programmer

Lew and Lisa,

Add me to the mix as well. I'm another would-be academic who used Tinderbox
to help me write my dissertation. Also like Lisa, I use a modified GTD
template, but primarily in outline mode.

I suspect that like others I understand and have used attributes,
prototypes, and agents. However, my sense of the "gestalt" is that there's
more to it that I'm missing, even though I spend most of my time in
Tinderbox.

-- 
Cheers 
-Art
> From: Lisa Schweitzer <lschwei__AT__vt.edu>
> Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2006 14:43:12 -0500
> To: Tinderbox on Macintosh <Tb__AT__lee-phillips.org>
> Subject: Re: [Tb] questions from a non-programmer
> Resent-From: <tb__AT__lee-phillips.org>
> Resent-Date: Wed,  4 Jan 2006 14:43:17 -0500 (EST)
> 
> I could have written this post, actually. I am an academic, and I
> used Tinderbox for my dissertation and I still use it to manage my
> time, having modified the GTD template to be more friendly to my need
> to work primarily in the map interface. Lew and I might be a list of
> two, but I would like to engage in some discussion about how to use
> TB for research and writing more effectively.  Learning as much as I
> have has been rough thus far, and I keep thinking that I am somehow
> missing some of the great things associated with TBox simply because
> I don't have as much time to explore as I'd like (tenure clock is
> ticking on me).
> 
> Lisa
> 
> 
> On Jan 4, 2006, at 11:50 AM, Lew Friedland wrote:
> 
>> 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
>> 
>