Teams

[Chipp Walters]

Hi Troy. Welcome back.

Here are some thoughts I have about working in Xtalk languages with teams.
I've done it on some fairly large products in SuperCard and now in RR.

As I'm sure you already know, large scale multimedia/game projects are very
team oriented. Generally, there is a producer, art director, writers,
artists, and programmers. Games are typically broken apart into segments,
which are scripted by writers, art is rendered by artists, then it all
combined into an application by programmers. In this way, the project is
successfully managed to completion. Generally, there is a basic 'engine'
which is used.

In large scale software projects, this same approach can be useful.
Especially if a singe architecture is decided upon *before* beginning
coding. Unlike many typical programmers, Xtalk programming tends to be 'top
down' instead of 'bottom up.' This is great for a number of reasons. First
and foremost it allows the 'team' to visualize the product before code is
written. Once the interface is built, it can quickly be tested as well,
without too much coding. This is a good time to verify user and client
assumptions regarding look and feel and usability.

Only a small number of people need be involved at this stage. Generally a
GUI guy/gal and a graphics person, along with the project manager. Once
signed off on, a lead programmer can create the necessary documentation
regarding the software modules to be designed. RunRev is especially good at
'plugin' adaptation, wherein a plugin could be a stack window or stack code
library. In these cases, individual plugins can be specified and assigned to
different developers. Maintaining a server with source code versioning can
be complex, or as easy as using a archiving tool like altArchive (RR plugin
at: <http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit2/RunRev/Rev2.0Plugins.htm>).

I've worked for some time on HemingwayPC (CMS client) and currently it has 9
different plugins -- all load automatically from the server and are updated
as needed. Very easy to maintain versioning. I hope this is helpful.

-Chipp