Is Rev too "Mac focused"?

[Ken Ray]

On 8/7/04 6:24 PM, "Dan Shafer" <revdan at danshafer.com> wrote:

> Ken....
> 
> What you are saying here is that you want a cross-platform tool that
> still allows you to do very platform-specific code. Or maybe you don't
> care about cross-platform as long as you can use the system-specific
> stuff. Either way, I can tell you from bitter experience that creating
> a tool designed to be xplat and then opening the door to proprietary
> OS-based code is a path to disaster for the tool maker and ultimately
> for developers, particularly inventive users who find themselves
> trapped on a single platform by a bad, poorly understood decision.

Really? What about AppleScript support, the ability to read and write to the
registry in Windows, support for XCMDs in OS 9, etc.? These are all
platform-specific additions to Rev. If Rev *truly* decided to only do what
was possible across platforms, Rev would be a lot more limited than it is
now.

What I'm saying is that there are specific items on specific platforms that
are really important to have. AppleScript on MacOS is one of them. Native
API calls in Windows is another.

> There has *never* been a true xplat development tool of which I am
> aware that successfully used native system calls and opened the native
> system API. That way lies danger, methinks.

Well, you'll have to tell that to Real Software (unless you don't think they
are a true xplat development tool) - see the Declare statement in the
RealBasic help stack. And Toolbook (although it is not xplat, but IS xTalk)
has support for accessing the Windows API.

Look, I'm not trying to bust anyone's chops on this - I'm just trying to say
that to hook Windows developers on Rev, you MUST have SOME ability to access
outside functionality (DLLs, API calls, ActiveX/COM controls, etc.) -
otherwise they won't listen about all the good things that Rev can offer to
development. It's almost like spending hours extolling the virtues of Rev,
only to find out it can't read or write files. That would be a true downer.
It's THAT basic, IMHO.

But perhaps I'm wrong at assuming this is a must-have... there are a number
of Windows developers on this list... too them I ask: am I wrong about this?
Please, be honest...

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