It probably is intentional, but we could probably do to make it a bit clearer what to do about it. The app will look for a "data" folder in its install directory and load data from there (it can work with lots of directories and will eventually support per-user directories, but that's what we have as a default for now). If it can't find anything then it'll just show you an empty list. Try snagging the
sample data files as a starter, or some of the full files from Snowblizz's Yahoo group to get working with.
As for a screencast, yeah, it'd probably help newbies. Once you're familiar with SVN and MonoDevelop then it's a little less necessary, but anything we can do to help people get started and help out is appreciated
If you're interested in helping out with coding then please either check the
main bug list or the
'papercuts' (similar idea to Ubuntu's papercuts - the little things that shouldn't require too much knowledge of the code base but do help out).
[edit] Oh, and give me a shout with your Trac (dev site) username if you want to contribute more and I'll bump your privileges and add a Subversion account for you.