Rev 2.02/New pricing

[Ray G. Miller]

From: Geoff Canyon <gcanyon at inspiredlogic.com>


> There seem to be three arguments against the Express closing screen:
> <snip>> What Revolution needs now is awareness. Anything that promotes that is 
> good. Anything that hinders that is bad.
> 
> Disclaimer: the above is speculation.
> 

Geoff, I couldn't disagree more strongly.

We, the designers and programmers, ARE the end-users of Rev, not our 
potential customers. The taste of a bad GUI of any programming tool can 
last a lifetime. Do you remember CPX? If you didn't get a headache doing 
a simple "hello world", you ended up in a straight jacket. How about 
that loverly "deBabbelizer"? My stomach tied in knots at the thought of 
booting it... Programmers and designers are two different breeds. What 
made most Apple Apps superior to PC Apps was the attention to the small 
details outlined in Apple (and probably Adobe) GUI.

When I first saw Rev 1.0, I was really turned off by the lack of user 
interface design (EX: madly resizing info windows; fonts that made 
German Script look positively readable; lines going every which way!). 
And this from folks who "knew" the Apple GUI. It hurt to use it.

I deleted it after three or four tries. I switched from WindowScript 
(HC) to MetaCard. The MC GUI was no great shakes, but it didn't get in 
my way. Scott Raney is the Superman of programmers, but UI is not his 
strongest suit.

This "awareness" boost is not the same as saying "any publicity is good 
publicity as long as they spell my name correctly". Bad publicity from 
poorly designed/programmed apps from Rev will have an adverse effect on 
the company. Smeared reputations by word-of-mouth programmers are very 
hard to cleanup. Look at HC and Director and CPX. If Rev is to grow, 
adding forced splash screens in not the way to do it. I know I wouldn't 
use it under those circumstances.

by the way, how many of you know about Apple GUI guidelines?


Ray G. Miller
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