Metacard support

[Wilhelm Sanke]

Recently, on Mon, 17 Nov, Richard Gaskin wrote (replying to Eric Engle 
in thread "MetaCard/Revolution Evangelism"):

> I don't think it steps on anyone's toes so long as you mke it clear 
> that the
> MC IDE is unsupported.
>
>  Richard Gaskin 


This statement contains some truth, but needs to be qualified in order 
not to be misunderstood.

I will try to list some details about the nature of the support of  
Metacard and hope to avoid too much mingling of facts and hopes. Please, 
correct me, if I am wrong with regard to certain points or omit 
essential aspects.

1.  RR (Runtime Revolution) has guaranteed that the Metacard IDE will 
continue:

Kevin Miller, Thu, 14 Aug 2003:

>  > This is in writing; Rev has stated that publicly that they will 
> continue
>  > to allow the MC IDE to continue to work with the new Rev engine.
>
> Yes.  And I'll state it again here in case there is any confusion.


2. Metacard - even for new users - is available from the Metacard 
website www.metacard.com and from other sources.

3. Metacard users can continue to use their current licenses and renew 
them through RR  

4. You can get new Metacard licenses if you purchase a Revolution 
version. Just specify you want an extra Metacard license key.

5. The Metacard engine can be updated by substituting mc.exe or Metacard 
(on MacOS) with the newest version of the Metacard/Revolution engine, 
i.e. by renaming Revolution.exe to mc.exe and a similar, but slightly 
more complex change of the MacOS version.

 Kevin Miller, Thu, 14 Aug 2003:

>  > it's the *same engine*, just
> > given a new name. When they add features to it for the benefit of Rev
> > users, MC users who wish to continue with the MC IDE can just drop in
> > the new engine and go.
>
> Right.  So this acquisition means we can, over a period of time, gradually
> integrate the various language extensions that Revolution has got, and 
> make
> that available to people who are still using MetaCard.  Thus, you can look
> forward to database access, text to speech, XML, and all the other stuff
> getting integrated neatly into the language.


6. From the above quote you see that RR intends to enhance Metacard with 
these features.

7. Metacard will be still  supported - as I read it - maybe indirectly 
by Scott Raney.

Kevin Miller, Thu, 14 Aug 2003:

> The
> only difference is that Scott now has *substantially* more time to do
> development, as our marketing and technical support *team* are able to
> handle those aspects and leave our engineers free to do what they do best.
> Scott is a super-programmer, and now he has a lot more time to do just 
> that.


8. Metacard is being actively supported by a group of interested members 
of the Metacard mailing list.

9. Members of this Metacard user group have developed a number of 
applications that could be integrated via a plugin menu item or as 
directly accessible form the Metacard MenuBar.

10. Metacard is supported by Richard Gaskin, the chosen "foreman" and 
coordinator of the Metacard  user group.---

It is indeed a happy coincidence that Richard Gaskin, the foreman of our 
Metacard user group, has been promoted to the rank of an "illustrious 
Revolutionary" (see Heather William's post of Nov 27th, subject "Seminar").

As it were, Richard "epitomizes" the new modern Metacard user that 
wishes Metacard to continue for various reasons and at the same time is 
interested in and contributes to the necessary further development of 
Revolution.

This "dual enrollment" (one of the most promising features in the 
American educational system connected to advanced-placement classes - 
the AP class probably being the Metacard/Revolution project in a broader 
sense) as an "illustrious Revolutionary" *and* the chairman of the 
Metacard support group at the same time provides a optimistic 
perspective for the continuation and development of Metacard.

As a member of the "inner circles" of Revolution and Metacard he is in a 
favorable position to communicate with the new owners of Metacard and 
convey the potential of Metacard  even for the improvement of Revolution 
and to also encourage the RR team to discuss openly current and urgent 
problems of Revolution - about which they seem at present rather 
reluctant to give feedback (like about the serious problems of the Rev 
Distribution Builder and the very slow speed of the Revolution IDE when 
working with stacks that contain greater number of controls- problems 
that do not exist in the Metacard IDE.).

Kevin Miller - in his already quoted post of 14 Aug 2003 - has 
encouraged feedback himself when he said:

>  If you switch over and provide feedback, tools and resources
> for Rev, Revolution gets better faster, we are more successful, and 
> everyone
> gets a better tool as a result of our being able to upgrade it faster 
> - even
> people who only use the engine and little of the UI.


Such feedback would be optimal  when the communication is bi-directional.

Regards,

Wilhelm Sanke