How do you learn to use new programs?

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How do you learn to use new programs?

I use the program until I figure it out
16
23%
Official text manual
14
20%
Unofficial text documentation (tutorials, etc.)
12
17%
Videos (youtube, etc.)
14
20%
Friends teach me
1
1%
I ask for help on forums or chatrooms
8
12%
I read the source code
2
3%
Other (please specify)
2
3%
 
Total votes: 69

Basslint
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How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by Basslint »

Hello,

as a developer/packager/FLOSS enthusiast I'm curious to know how you people learn to use new programs, so here is a poll for you :D multiple options are enabled, but feel free to post some additional explanations here!

The poll concerns every kind of program but of course, if there are differences between audio programs and other kinds of programs please do share them!
The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. [Acts 4:32]

Please donate time (even bug reports) or money to libre software 🎁

Jam on openSUSE + GeekosDAW!
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by jonetsu »

Videos from an official 3rd party. Example: Chandler Guitar numerous videos on Melda plugins. Each video addresses a specific use and because of that, they are more instructive than the official Melda videos. Because they are from a user point of view, maybe if the main subject is not urgent to learn about, many tips and tricks are also shared which can be applied n a general way. The company's own videos are more 'to the point' and do not camp a user in action that much. Still good, but not the same.

What I mean is that, it's not only by video in my case, it's by good and useful videos made outside of direct business product concerns.

Example:

MRhythmizer Pattern Sequencing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6t55PBmEEo
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by milo »

The Ardour Manual is super useful. I read it cover to cover, and that really launched me up the learning curve. I still refer to it often.
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by Death »

I do a combo of reading the official manual, watching tutorial videos (official & unofficial) and just using the program of course. When I get really stuck then I ask on forums.

But seriously, who the f.... Some of you read the source code to learn how to use a DAW!? That's so beyond me.. God damn terminators, you people..
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by Michael Willis »

Death wrote: Tue Mar 16, 2021 11:32 pmterminators
Oh come on, sometimes the source code is the only documentation I can find. :mrgreen:
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by sunrat »

The Mixbus manual is great if you use Mixbus. Although even with over 500 pages, there's occasionally something I can't find or just isn't documented. Time to hit the Mixbus forums then.
And being based on Ardour, there's also cases where a solution to something can be found there which isn't in the Mixbus manual such as how to keep plugin and utility windows on top in KDE Plasma.
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by Death »

Michael Willis wrote: Wed Mar 17, 2021 12:25 am Oh come on, sometimes the source code is the only documentation I can find. :mrgreen:
Good for you being able to do that. I would trial and error my way to success or just give up :lol:
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by Michael Willis »

Death wrote: Wed Mar 17, 2021 12:44 am Good for you being able to do that. I would trial and error my way to success or just give up :lol:
Just to be clear, I was mostly being silly, and making a sarcastic commentary about the lack of documentation for a lot of open source stuff. Thank goodness for those projects that are well documented.
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by bhilmers »

I learn every new program with the official documentation at hand. This is probably a carryover from the pre-Internet days when "help" in the program's menubar was actually useful and clicking it opened a local document with everything you needed to know.

As a developer, if there are two competing FLOSS projects that fit my need, I always, always pick the one with better documentation.
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by alexson »

I learn to use new programs from YouTube videos.
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by folderol »

A mixture of 1, 5, 6 :)
The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by milo »

I would also point out that the workflow for learning a new program is different for a gui app vs commandline app. In the terminal the first thing I do is run the programm with its "--help" option and read through the output. If that doesn't answer the question I will go to the man pages, then online.

A well-designed gui app should have all of its functions visually discoverable. A ridiculously complicated application (like a DAW, for instance) has a hard time meeting that standard. But there I've never bothered to check if there is a "--help" option or a man page for most gui apps, because I rarely launch them from the command line.

I would guess that workflows for visually impaired users would be similar to the one I use for terminal commands.
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Re: How do you learn to use new programs?

Post by English Guy »

I use the manuals and all the help I can get; for me, they do not make sense until I have used the program and learned the UI.
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