Topic Title

The problems that you mention are valid.
It seems to be that there are some really great programmers who understand and use DCAL well. They produce the add-ons that the rest of us use and appreciate. But, they can only justify putting in a large amount of effort when the need is big enough to warrant doing so.
There are other little isolated tricks and tasks that might be useful only to a few DataCAD users or even to a single individual. That's where it would be nice to have some way for us to learn enough to provide for our own customization. Obviously, DataCAD has been designed to allow modifications, but actual Tool production is difficult.
There are surely many other DCAD users who, like myself, want to learn how to use DCAL, but are sort of lost in between "Hello, World." and the world of Detailer, SubText, and Schrive. That's a mighty big gap and most of us have no idea of how to make the baby steps needed to get started.
It's almost like one must be born in a different intellectual world to actually be DCAL proficient.
Me making excuses for us gets us nowhere fast.
Woody

What I keep seeing might be compared to my being a flight instructor and using this teaching lesson.
"This is a wing."
"Fly this plane to Chicago."
For most students, there would seem to be a few other learning points needed in there somewhere.
Woody

Woody's two post above well describe my out outlook on this topic also.

Hello Pietro,

I have followed your threads on the DDN discussion board, but, only with mild interest. Having received training in Fortran, Basic, HTML, PHP and dabbled with some scripting languages, Rexx and VB, I find programming and scripting only useful when fills a need. At the present time, I find no need on my part or in my use of DataCAD to pursue DCAL. I made a conscious decision some 20 years ago to be a user rather than a creator of software. Wherever possible, I will purchase the work of others rather than create my own. It is more productive for me.

That doesn't mean others don't have a need. Looking at the Wishlist, I am sure that some of those wishes could be written in DCAL, whether or not it is fixed, improved, or supported.

However, the purpose of this note is to applaud your noble efforts to make useful a seldom used portion of DataCAD. I sincerely hope that others pick up DCAL with you and produce useful applications.

There may be more potential developers out there than one would think. As each of us builds up a knowledge base, we can't help but spread it to others. That's because any new project is approached with enthusiasm and that enthusiasm is contagious.
You're planting seeds here so please don't be discouraged because you haven't yet seen them sprout. They may be just out of site under the surface.
I'm not pretending to be profound, but I do know that I've spent twenty years wanting to do what you've offered me the opportunity to do. I just haven't known how to effectively go about doing it. Now, I may get to learn how to work with DCAL and I'll owe it to your willingness to be my guide.
Looking forward,
Woody