Having used AltUI for less than a week, I can honestly say I’m about ready to give up. I have spent hours trying to create a simple Workflow. I downloaded the very first example in the tutorial section and that document has created more questions than answers.
Starting with screenshot #1, which is from the Smart Motion Light.pdf in the workflow tutorial section of this forum.
Unfortunately, my Workflow screen does not look anything like the example. See screenshot #2. I have round circles, the tutorial has squares. OK, maybe thats a newer version. No biggie. But where do the in1, in2, out1 & out2 (red or green) nodes come from? I can get links with arrows, but no input/output nodes.
Then there are those links with the arrows. What does the green or orange arrow tip represent? See screenshot #4. And if I click on the line I get an intermediate node. What is it and whats its purpose? See screenshot #5.
I consider myself an advanced software user and have never struggled as much as I have with ALTUI. The ‘documentation’ is more a description of capabilities than a tutorial of how to implement those things. I have read every pinned post in the ALTUI subform and there is nothing that addresses any of the above questions. I even downloaded the French version of the documentation and Google translated it. It is no more complete than the English version.
Please understand I am NOT bashing the author. I know a ton of effort has gone into this project. However, I am very frustrated with the lack of basic tutorials - step by step instructions to make a workflow perform a simple operation like turning on a light. I’ve spent several hours again today and can not duplicate the authors example, can not get a simple workflow to turn on a light and can not understand the various (undocumented) items I describe above. And, yes, I have registered and paid for the full version, so no issues there.
I realize there is always a learning curve. It was the same way with PLEG. However PLEG was a LOT more intuitive in its implementation and methodology. ALTUI is different, and thats a good thing. Maybe it offers a completely different capability set than PLEG. Problem is (for me), its not intuitive. I know there are some power users out there that could whip up some simple examples (step by step) that would provide a foundation for all new users to getter a better handle on how this thing works.
I don’t want to give up but without a basic idea of how it works, what the different things mean (or do), its basically useless to me.