Books on RunRev

[Alan Gayne]

On Friday, May 30, 2003, at 09:58 PM, Judy Perry wrote:

> And, where exactly would the inspiration for Revolution have come from
> were it not for that 'failed' product used by perhaps hundreds of
> thousands of people or more for more than a decade?

and STILL use every working day and all day long.   I for one, will be 
thrilled on the day I can get RunRev to do as easily all of the things 
I now do with Hypercard and Nine to Five Reports.  Because only then 
will I have the luxury of the extra time available to get into the all 
of the great ADDITIONAL features contained in Revolution.  I have no 
doubt that they are present, but the current state of the documentation 
makes them very difficult (for me at least) to access and understand.

In the extensive discussions regarding Nine to Five Reports I haven't 
noticed the mention of one incredibly important feature - that it came 
with a truly amazing online manual numbering some 1700+ pages which not 
only provided detailed explanations use and scripting examples of all 
of the special functions they had implement in their related products 
(Reports, Index, & Letters) but full documentation on Hypercard itself 
and extensive discussion on scripting, AddColor and lot of other stuff. 
  This compendium was written by L. Michael Post and Michael Long and is 
a brilliant example of what comprehensive documentation can and should 
be - one I use to this very day.

I cheerfully purchased the printed RunRev documentation hoping and 
NEEDING to find something similar.  Unfortunately (and incredibly) the 
two volume Transcript dictionary doesn't even have an index.  And I was 
and remain far less cheerful about the RunRev documentation.

I REALLY want and need to learn how to make RunRev do the things I now 
do with Hypercard and Nine to Five Reports because one day I will buy a 
new Mac which won't run HC and Reports under any circumstance and I'll 
be reduced to scrounging for old system 9 machines to run my business.

A truly great product such as RunRev deserves and will require truly 
great documentation, rich with examples, if it is ever to gain 
widespread acceptance.

As to RunRev's Hypercard roots, I would venture to guess that if our 
friends in Scotland were able to sell licenses to all those who are 
STILL using Hypercard today (as a start) their accountant would be a 
happy camper.  As Stephen Barncard said, Hypercard had a "huge user 
base that was fairly invisible because they solved their own problems."


Alan