Request for input from the more experienced users please.

[Rob Cozens]

Hi Paul,

I've been designing & programming software since 1974.  My primary 
focus is small to medium sized business & governmental accounting 
systems.

>Among my concerns are:
>
>No grid or listview (I've been told this is in the works but I'm not
>much on vaper ware.) Is there an existing third party solution for
>this?

Unfortunately, I have no experience with VB; so I don't know what 
grids and listviews do in that environment.  If your goal is to align 
controls at a fixed grid coordinate, I don't think is totally 
straightforward; but I've never tried it.  If your goal is to align 
multiple controls, it's simply a matter of clicking on the control 
you want the rest aligned to, shift-clicking on the controls you want 
aligned to it, selecting the align menuItem, and specify whether 
alignment is based on top, bottom, left edge, etc.

If a VB listview shows you all the components & assorted resources of 
an application, I would guess RunRev's Application Overview has it 
beat.

>
>I understand that Rev can access MySQL but I'm wondering does it use
>MyODBC or a natural integration like that of PHP?

Don't know, as I'm not using MySQL.

>
>Report capabilities.  I've had a rather disastrous experience trying
>to print from the documentation that comes with Rev.  This makes me
>wonder about it's report and print capabilities.

A beefed-up report printing capability is in the wings (read "still 
vaporware as of this release"); however I find the revPrintText 
command more than adequate for users who accept monoproportional, 
single-font business reports.  The Serendipity Library includes a 
printTable handler that puts a wrapper around revPrintText for ease 
of use.

>
>What are Rev's multie-user capabilities?  Does it have true record
>locking capabilities?

In the original implementation of Xtalk (HyperCard), the first user 
to open a stack has read/write access and all other users get read 
access only.  I have not checked this in RunRev; but I believe the 
underlying MetaCard engine follows this convention.  Obviously, 
multi-user access and record-locking for database access is a 
function of the db engine.

>
>
>If those more experienced users would please address the above and
>provide any additional information they think might be helpful in my
>decision making process I'd be most appreciative.
>

If control & power to design an engaging, interactive user interface 
is important to you, you've come to the right place.
-- 

Rob Cozens
CCW, Serendipity Software Company
http://www.oenolog.com/who.htm

"And I, which was two fooles, do so grow three;
Who are a little wise, the best fooles bee."

from "The Triple Foole" by John Donne (1572-1631)