Doing What Works

[Dan Shafer]

Wow.

All this really interesting reading and discussion about RR's roots and  
how exposed they ought to be has left me reeling a bit and perhaps  
wandering dazedly in a landscape of the past.

In the end, it seems to me that the following statements remain almost  
undeniably true.

1. RR does have its roots in HyperCard.
2. Sometimes, trying to explain a development environment like RR to  
someone who either is a "professional programmer" and therefore  
disdainful of such things, or a complete newcomer to development and  
ignorant of such things, is eased by the HyperCard analogy. I sometimes  
tell people who just need a quick summary, "Revolution is like  
HyperCard in color on steroids, cross-platform."
3. Whether I should drag out HyperCard, blow the dust off of it and try  
to connect it to RR is a situational thing. If I think it'll help, I do  
it. If not, I don't.
4. If your programming efforts are carried out in a time or place or  
manner where the choice of tool is not relevant to anyone but you,  
choose Revolution and be quiet about it, at least until the user loves  
what you've done. If someone else dictates your tool, you get to decide  
how vociferously you want to argue for RR. (I have a very good friend  
who categorically refuses any programming assignment where he's not  
free to use Python, e.g.)

I'm using Python, JavaScript and RR exclusively these days. Each has  
its place in my toolbox and I won't take a project that doesn't either  
specify one of them or leave the choice to me. But I can afford to do  
that; I don't depend on programming for my entire income.

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Dan Shafer
Technology Visionary - Technology Assessment - Documentation
"Looking at technology from every angle"
http://www.eclecticity.com
Latest Book Release: "HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS"  
(http://www.sitepoint.com/books/css1/)