R: first use of notation

[Mark Phillips]

On Jan 31, 2010, at 9:41 AM, Franco Maregotto wrote:

> Omnis is a great product with only one lack: the manuals!

When I began with Omnis 7, I sat on the back of the buckboard wagon  
and read every page of every manual as my pappy drove us to town to  
pick up fixins and get a haircut at a real barbershop.

Seriously, the manuals are full of useful information. What is missing  
is practical application. Omnis was mostly inscrutable until I sat  
down with Walter Venable, then later on with others such as Kinley  
Pon, Damon Biddle, Chris Clarke and Leon Ventor, to mention just a few  
who helped me. Their applications of the tool set to real problems  
provided true enlightenment.

So read the manuals. Ask lots of questions. Seek out good examples.  
Find a fellow Omnis dev to commiserate with. More than that, read some  
good books about object oriented thinking. On this last suggestion, be  
leery of product or vendor specific material. They will mislead you  
and muddle your thinking.

Mostly have fun. Try stuff. Fail a lot. Keep in mind that success  
stands on the bones of a thousand failures.

Happy days,

  - Mark Phillips