Please include the new features in alpha in the help documentation; and also add use cases

Discussion related to "Everything" 1.5 Alpha.
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Raindrops
Posts: 247
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2023 10:04 am

Please include the new features in alpha in the help documentation; and also add use cases

Post by Raindrops »

I am using the 1.5 Alpha and discovering new thrilling features every single day! :)
Some of these features are so powerful that it changes my entire workflow, and makes it extremely efficient.

However, it is not easy to figure out all these features (especially for non-programmers like me).
My progress is slow because I have to figure out every new feature by myself.
The forum may already have this information, but locating those pages is difficult.
Those pages remain hidden till we happen to discuss that particular topic in the forum and someone posts a link.

And that brings me to this suggestion:

Please list all new features in the help documentation.
That will lead to faster discovery, and also nudge the users to test them out on priority, and give suggestions for betterment.

IMHO the best way to declare new features is to create a new node "Experimental features (Alpha)".
That way, the users will find all new features in a single place.

This node should have subnodes that describe each feature in more detail.

Each page in this section should carry a caution that these are experimental features, and some of them may not appear in the next version of Everything. (Also warn the user to use with caution, etc.)

*******
Adding examples (use cases) to the help documentation:

Many users are not imaginative enough to figure out how to exploit a given feature, just by reading its basic description.
They need examples to catch on.

In fact, this idea applies even to the mature features that already exist in the stable version of Everything.
If the user can read up how to put these features to good use, his productivity will shoot up!

For example, let's consider this topic: "how to use the command line tokens".

To educate a user, this page should have hyperlinks for each token, which takes us to a separate page, which describes how to use that particular token, and provides some example use cases.

This page can also describe how to combine this token with other tokens (and features) to extend the functionality.
void
Developer
Posts: 16745
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Please include the new features in alpha in the help documentation; and also add use cases

Post by void »

Moved to the Everything 1.5 forum.

Most new features have stickied threads here.

Some of these features are still changing.

I will add useful examples as they are found.
The preprocessor page is quite advanced and will take some time to add useful examples.
The syntax has recently changed too, which makes things difficult (eg: #len:abc => [len:abc] )

These threads will be moved to the support wiki for release.

I'll consider linking the examples to the original discussion.
For now, please try the forum search functionality.

Thank you for the suggestions.
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