Newbie Questions from a ToolBook Developer

[Ken Ray]

> I've been developing courseware with ToolBook for about 7 years, but I'm a
> brand new user to Runtime Revolution.

Welcome, Jim!
 
> I'm excited about the cross-platform possiblities. I'm ultimatly looking for
> a second development tool and possibly something to switch to for full-time
> development.
> 
> If anyone can help me with the following concerns, It'd be much appreciated.

I'll do the best I can... I've used earlier version of Toolbook (v4 mostly),
so I'm somewhat familiar with some of the "gotcha's" you've mentioned. :-)
 
> 1. Are there any examples of large-scale distributions of anything created
> with Runtime Revolution? Specifically, I'm looking to see if there are any
> "gotcha" distribution issues, say some minor conflict that would pop up on
> Windows XP Home with a certain type of video card. The applications I build
> get distributed to many thousands so I have to look far down the road. I'm
> not asking this question as anything against Runtime Revolution's
> stability--it's just that ToolBook is riddled with "gotchas" that have taken
> me half a decade to find and workaround. Just want to know if it's a
> similiar experience here.

I would check on RunRev's site where they have the "Made With Revolution"
list:

  http://www.runrev.com/Revolution1/chooserevolution/index.shtml

 
> 2. Is there any way to dock all of the toolbars in the development
> environment to make it more of a one-window application. I"m trying the
> program out in Windows, but will also try it out in OSX soon. I understand I
> can edit the development-environment stacks, but this is a bit ambitious
> since I just got started. :-)

You can't really "dock" windows in Rev; you can open and close palettes and
move them around, but they don't lock together or "snap" to a location.
 
> 3. Is there such a thing as a "background" or a "master page/stack/card" or
> a "shared card" in Runtime Revolution? I'm looking for a way to put
> something like a "next" button on this instead of having 200 copies of the
> same "next" button on 200 cards.

Yes, and yes! Actually what you get is more flexible; shared groups. You can
take a group of objects and turn on "background behavior", and then "place"
the group on any card(s) you like (or they will automatically be placed as
you add cards to a stack). For example, you might want to have group of
navigation buttons at the bottom of every card that is the same (one group),
and then a group that is a "header" at the top of every card except for a
small handful that don't get it (another group).

Hope this helps,


Ken Ray
Sons of Thunder Software
Web site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/
Email: kray at sonsothunder.com