Re: A place to learn about Lotus Notes/Domino -- MIDRANGE-L


> Off topic: Is there a place to learn about Lotus Notes?



There are various courses available in large cities.  Look on the net for
certified Lotus Domino/Notes courses. However, they are expensive.  I did a
video on Notes 4. a number of years ago that is, I believe, still available at
www.mc-store.com.  They're discounting it (thank god).  I tried to write the
video with the AS/400 pgmr in mind, to give a basic intro.  I recommend it only
because I designed it with my own need-to-know in mind. I'm not pushing the
video, because it's so old, but I do believe I covered the basics -- before
Domino web-serving was announced.



Manta also has courseware on Lotus Notes/Domino.  You might want to check them
out.www.manta.com



Mastering Lotus Domino is a pretty good compendium. Also the certification books
available through Lotus are obvious choices.



Look at www.Notes.net for samples of code and discussion forums. They also have
scads of interesting free templates and databases that you can use to cut your
teeth.  Avoid the admin templates at first, and focus on the application ones.



One good book, if its still available, that teaches how to use LotusScript (a
back-end programming language) is "60 Minute Guide to LotusScript 3 (that's the
edition I have, it may have been updated) writtend by Beyer, Houle, and Perron
at IDG Books.  It has useful examples, and is relatively straightforward.
However, there are some just plain editing problems with the book (mismatched
figures and missing figures.) so don't think you're getting a masterpiece.



Finally, there's no better means of learning it than to do it. Build an
application with it. Start with something really rediculously easy.  But, if
you're doing it on your own without a server, you've got some major hurdles.
Use templates, and pry them apart to see how they were created. Start thinking
of every Notes application as a combination of a front-end client program, and a
back-end server program, with different programming tools available to
manipulate both ends separately. This is a very different paradigm than what
we're used to on the AS/400.



The Notes client may or may not be superior to Outlook (it's certainly more
secure.)  You are right, Notes/Domino is not intuitive and -- like all Lotus
products -- its documentation is atrocious.  Books that are available make stabs
at penetrating the inscrutibility of the notes structure.  None, to my thinking,
succeed because it is such a hybrid technology.  I've been working in
Notes/Domino for several years now, and I still find myself struggling with some
of their implementation.  Quality assurance must be a real struggle for them as
well, because what they are doing is so arcane that it must drive their QA
managers crazy.  Also, I find that many Notes/Domino techies from Lotus are
exceptionally snobby.  They get testy on the forums if somebody asks the same
question that's already been answered on the forum. (It never seems to occur to
them that if the question keeps getting asked, over and over, maybe they should
make it easier or change their documentation to explain it better.)
Nevertheless, there are some really helpful messages on www.note.net on the gold
forums -- people who you would like to hug and take out to dinner and meet the
wife and kids because they actually did provide you with the real answer. (And
besides, your wife and kids haven't seen you in weeks because of the problem
that this person finally solved.)


If you're at the level of wanting Al Gore to come an do a technical briefing,
you probably should look at the video first. That's the level at which I wrote
the video.



Anyway, that's the places where I hang out looking for answers.



Thomas M. Stockwell



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