Missing Manuals for FR6?
As far as I can see, the only documentation currently available for FastReport VCL6 is the User Manual.
I have delayed purchasing the upgrade from FR VCL5 Enterprise while waiting for the appearance of the Programmer Manual, Developer Manual and Enterprise user manual.
Will these additional documents be available soon?
I note that the previous versions for VCL5 are no longer available to download from the FR website
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Comments
http://fast-report.com/pbc_download/DeveloperManual-en.pdf
http://fast-report.com/pbc_download/EnterpriseEn.pdf
What is rather less good is that those docs are all very ancient!
The Programmer's Manual and the Developer's Manual were both written for FR VCL4 and are 7 years old.
The Enterprise Programmer's Manual relates to FR VCL3 and is from 2005.
I can understand that there have been few subsequent updates to capabilities of the Enterprise product and therefore the old manual is ok.
But surely the same cannot be said of the other two manuals, given the major enhancements that appeared with the releases of VCL5 and VCL6?
Reading the Forums as a regular visitor, a significant percentage of posts comes from Newbies struggling with their entry into the FastReport / FastCube / FastScript world.
But there are other posts from more experienced Users looking for what I might call "consulting". (I've posted a few of those myself.)
A glib response to both could be, "have you searched the Forums?" And sometimes that is all that is needed - the problem I have today looks like one you solved last month...
It would seem that the documentation structure needs to reflect the usage.
Introductory tutorial stuff that starts small and works for someone who has no pre-knowledge.
Then maybe a Wiki that documents the "nuts and bolts" for Users with more experience who just need a reminder of "which Property controls...?" etc. Which is what most of the extant Fast documentation seems to do.
And then maybe a distillation of the Forums posts (and possibly some Support Tickets) that answers those "what is the best way to...?" questions.
It is all very expensive to do, especially if you have to do it in more than one language.
But the current documentation feels like it was written by architects / coders and not by professional technical writers - people who understand their audiences.
Rant Over.
As a start, I reckon the Wiki option (with only registered / licensed users allowed to update) would be a good beginning...
Cheers, Paul
EDIT:
I don't have an issue with "casual" users. But these Forums regularly attract Spam / Clickbait Advertisers, and a Wiki needs to have some control / discipline...