The Aborted Plunge (Metacard to Revolution)

[Richard Gaskin]

J. Landman Gay wrote:
> Shari wrote:
>> I pondered this question and figured that maybe, the time to 
>> contemplate a switch was NOT when I had no choice anymore. 

I see no worries there.  First there was MC, then Rev, then Galaxy, soon 
M2, then who knows.  Rather than no choice, the future seems moving 
toward an ever greater range of choices.

> I think that's sound, whether MC IDE goes away or not.

MC has been around since long before Rev was born, and will be around at 
  least as long as Rev.

> Knowing how to use Rev is useful, just like knowing how to  drive
> any kind of car, whether it's an automatic or a stick shift.

Precisely why MC remains valuable.

MC may be lightweight, but it represents a very with-the-grain way of 
using the engine to develop, and its nimble nature makes it less 
intrusive and in many ways both more flexible and more instructive than Rev.

If Rev is a rose, compellingly colorful, MC is a lotus blossom, 
infinitely flowering.

While MC represents the engine in its barest naked glory, the Rev IDE 
represents the specific workflow methods of Kevin Miller and his friends 
circa 1997.  The engine is flexible enough to allow people to solve 
problems in a nearly infinite number of ways, and many have, and often 
in ways different than how Kevin did.  The Rev IDE represents just one 
set of possible options.

If MetaCard, Galaxy, and M2 went away, future generations of Rev users 
would only understand one mode of thought, the Kevin Doctrine.  I like 
Kevin and he's a very bright fellow, but for all the good things he has 
going for him he isn't is infinite.  Yet the engine is.

As Scott Raney used to say when he encouraged Kevin to publish his own 
IDE, "Let a thousand flowers bloom".

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com