use-revolution digest, Vol 1 #1708 - 11 msgs

[Dan Shafer]

On Saturday, August 2, 2003, at 09:01 AM, miscdas wrote:

> Doesn't Java do a satisfactory job of it?
>
I have spent as lot of time with Java and I can guarantee you of a 
couple of things, at least from the perspective of developers like 
myself:

1. The Java learning curve is steep and long.
2. Java syntax is ugly and difficult to read in many cases
3. Java apps do *not* run cross-platform with anything near the ease of 
Revolution apps.  Java's promise of "write once, run everywnere", long 
since abandoned by Sun itself, quickly became "Write once, debug 
everywhere."
4. Java apps are slower than equivalent Revolution apps
5. Java apps are cumbersome compared to Rev apps. (A Rev developer was 
telling me just yesterday that he has a Java app that creates an alias 
to a file. For it to run correcty cross-platform, it took 257 lines of 
Java code. (That's probably 10-25% of the lines it would take in C++.) 
In Rev? One line and it runs everywhere.)

I've started thinking of Revolution -- and writing about it in my book 
-- as "All the power of Java...and hold the Java."

Yeah, I know, there are classes of apps (spreadsheets and word 
processors, e.g.) you wouldn't want to write in Rev that you can write 
in Java. And some have. But check out some of those Office-style apps 
in java and experience the joy of waiting for every single thing to 
happen. Even displaying typed keystrokes in a field feels sluggish.

For my money and time, Revolution is fabulous. Not perfect yet, but 
fabulous. I've built six applications in the past few weeks, any one of 
which would have taken many times that long in Java or even in Visual 
Basic.

It is not for nothing or without serious thought that I have cast a 
good bit of my fate with this product and this team.

FWIW.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Shafer, Revolutionary
Author of forthcoming 3-book set,
"Revolution: Programming at the Speed of Thought"
http://www.revolutionpros.com for More Info