Transition 400 to Radio

Radio Userland is a big learning curve for someone coming from any other computing community, comparable to someone being hired some place that has a 400 and they never knew anything about it before.  This document is intended to help with the transition of someone coming to Radio who knows the 400 world.  I first entered the 400 world in the mid 1990's, then got into Radio in summer of 2002, so I ought to be able to do a decent job of it.

I intend to do several pieces of documentation aimed at various things people need to know, that can be used whether you coming from 400 or from anywhere else, and use this essay to outline my suggested path through the documentation that is out there, not limited to mine.  So first let's outline the tutorial path of learning prerequisites, then top down fashion I will fill in the blanks to documentation answering questions.

Technical and Personal Prerequisites

I am using Microsoft Internet Explorer, because with it I can do this stuff without knowing a lick of *ML ... HTML, XTML, XML, whatever.  I have picked up a tinie tiny bit of it in recent months, but not enough to teach anyone else anything on the subject.  If you are using any other Browser, you need to be comfortable with this stuff to function in this world.  In my Tutorial, I will assume you are on a system like mine, in which I am using MS IE on Win 98 because that way I can use WYSIWYG and almost never touch the behind the scenes scripting language.  You might be on Apple Mac, some other version of Windows, perhaps even Linux.  You may need guidance from other people in areas opaque to me.

Look at the minimum requirements on your PC for Radio to work for you.  They say you have to have an Internet Browser, but it has to be one that is on their list.  I thought AOL was one.  Everyone who uses AOL thinks that way, but it is not on Radio's supported list.  You cannot update your Radio using AOL.  There are probably other exceptions like that which are not clearly spelled out.

We are accustomed, in the 400, to having a very stable secure environment, in which we know in advance of any upgrade exactly what the consequences will be, because the documentation clearly states what's what.  The Internet PC world is a bit flaky by comparison.  We type something in our Browser, then something goes haywire on our PC and we lose what we typed.  Radio does not have a feature like Word Processing where we can say please save what we key in every few minutes, or like Eudora e-mail where we can do Control S to save our work so far, without having to exit the editing.

Plus Radio is like Open Source with enhancements coming from every which direction.   The documentation is developed by the users, and we hope there are no major misconceptions being passed on, like sometimes happens in the technical discussion groups.  Take a quick look at my Radio Doc Sources to see the spectrum of people who have drafted documentation for Radio.  You probably want to bookmark that and periodically return, since I make additions from time to time.

Last update: 09/03/2002; 1:30:30 PM.