The sky is falling... [was Re: Is Rev too "Mac focused"?]

Troy Rollins troy at rpsystems.net
Sun Aug 8 00:34:03 EDT 2004


On Aug 8, 2004, at 12:18 AM, Frank Leahy wrote:

> 1. It is not only possible, but actually not all that hard, to create 
> hooks to native platform APIs on a cross-platform tool.  Java does it 
> with JNI.  Microsoft did it with their version of JNI  (RNI?) that Sun 
> had such a stink about and sued them over.  RealBasic does it.  What's 
> to stop RunRev doing it?  Once you decide how to pass parameters, the 
> rest is easy.
>
> 2. Neither adding hooks for native platform APIs,  nor adding an 
> alternate C-like syntax (as Director did) would cause the sky to fall. 
>  In fact both of these things would both make RunRev vastly more 
> accessible and to, and usable by, the overwhelming majority of 
> developers writing software today.

Agreed on both points. I think at the very least, Rev should support 
ActiveX controls... and as we all know, I'm a Mac guy. ActiveX is just 
too important to ignore.

And, personally, while I find Transcript amazingly powerful, I'll 
*never* actually like it as a language. Dot syntax is just as 
efficient, and clear as "writing it out longhand."

Still, even with Transcript Rev wins all of my productivity awards... 
AS LONG AS IT IS CAPABLE OF DOING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. The big killer 
with Rev is that while the ceiling is incredibly high, you can 
eventually hit it, and you have no options other than using an 
alternate tool to overcome them. There is no vast archive of externals, 
for free, or at any cost... unless you are willing to not only finance 
one, but wait for its development, and do the general design as well - 
and that is presuming you can find someone who is qualified and 
available to do it for you.

Basically, IF Rev can already do everything you need in your project, 
you are golden. In many if not most cases, this is probably the case. 
But if not, you need a different tool, because it doesn't easily extend 
beyond its limits.

ActiveX and similar hooks may relax the need for custom externals on 
many types of projects.

--
Troy
RPSystems, Ltd.
http://www.rpsystems.net



More information about the use-livecode mailing list