REALbasic (was Re: Pocket PC)

[Lorin Rivers]

It's not all my intent to hijack the Rev lists and turn this into a 
discussion of the relative merits of REALbasic versus any other tool. 
I only respond to questions or to comments that are inaccurate. My 
position is that, as it is in most things, each person needs to 
decide for himself if a particular solution addresses their 
particular problem.

Clearly, I have a bias, but despite the fact that I am a "Marketing" 
person, I don't want someone using REALbasic if it is not the right 
thing for them.

At 10:48 AM -0500 2/4/02, use-revolution-request at lists.runrev.com wrote:
><snip>
>  >> also I heard horrible stories about realBasic applications under Win.
>>
>>  People hear all sorts of things that aren't accurate. You should
>>  judge for yourself.
>
>Lets say for the sake of the argument that the stories going around aren't
>true (and I have my doubts given the number of them I have heard).

REALbasic's Windows support improves with every release. We rarely 
get complaints about it any more.

>The fact is that REALBasic cannot edit or debug a Windows application on
>Windows.  To develop a Windows application, you must build it on the Mac, go
>over to Windows, test it, then come back to the Mac to make changes.

If changes are required, that's true. Frequently, it "just works".

>   Even
>*if* the RB system works absolutely perfectly, there are going to be at the
>very least some platform specific tweaks that need to be made.

See above.

>   So in the
>very best case, this still results in a big reduction in productivity
>(again, still assuming that Windows compilation does work smoothly in
>REALBasic - you can imagine it is worse if it doesn't).

Not at all. The very best case is that the Windows application works 
flawlessly, "for free". It's true that we charge more for REALbasic 
Professional (which provides unfettered Windows compiling) than 
Standard (US$299.95 or US$99.95, respectively), even the demo version 
compiles time-limited Windows applications.

>There is an article on our web site that looks at the differences between
>Rev and REALBasic - if you don't have time to read it all you can check out
>the summary towards the end.  This shows amongst other things the number of
>hours needed to develop a simple sample app in Rev or RB.

I don't believe the article in question is particularly current about 
REALbasic's capabilities. Please also check out the numerous 
independent reviews of REALbasic. Don't take my (or Geoff Canyon's or 
Kevin Miller's or MacAddict's or MacWorld's or Andy Inhatko's) word 
for it. Simply decide for yourself.

>Kevin
>
>Kevin Miller <kevin at runrev.com> <http://www.runrev.com/>
>Runtime Revolution Limited - Power to the Developer!
>Tel: +44 (0) 870 747 1165.  Fax: +44 (0)1639 830 707.

Thanks!
-- 
Lorin Rivers                      512.263.1233 x712 v
Vice President of Marketing       512.263.1441 f
REAL Software                     mailto:lrivers at realsoftware.com
PMB 220                           http://www.realsoftware.com
3300 Bee Cave Road, Suite 650
Austin, Texas 78746
REALbasic: the powerful, easy-to-use tool for creating your own
software for Macintosh, Mac OS X, and Windows.