From: Chris Pine <nemo@...>
Date: 2002-12-08T07:30:56+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie tutorial - if statements



I say leave out the 'then'.  The less is on the page, the easier it is to
understand.  Taken to the extreme of making it look like english, you could
tell them if statements look like:

  if cond then#do#the#following
    ...
  else#do#something#else
    ...
  end

My vote is for keeping it simple.  if statements are already pretty englishy
and intuitive.  And I would only show them the multi-line if statement,
because with it they don't need the single-line version to do what they
want.

Also, I would leave out 'unless'.  It's just another thing for them to
remember.  A nuby never wants to hear:  "Well, you already know how to do X,
but here are two more ways to do X."  If you're going to be teaching them
something, have it always be something new.

After your tutorial, they can go read the pickaxe or something if they want
to know a few more ways to do X.

That's my general outlook, anyway.

:)

Chris