Is being a good cross-platform tool good enough? [was Re: Is Rev too "Mac focused"?]

[Frank Leahy]

On Aug 7, 2004, at 7:15 PM, use-revolution-request at lists.runrev.com 
wrote:

> From: Troy Rollins <troy at rpsystems.net>
> Subject: Re: Is Rev too "Mac focused"?
> To: How to use Revolution <use-revolution at lists.runrev.com>
> Message-ID: <2C070D22-E8B9-11D8-B3F3-000A95A09CF8 at rpsystems.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
>
>
> On Aug 7, 2004, at 5:25 PM, Ken Ray wrote:
>
>> Here's a couple of goodies:
>>
>> 1) Inability to use ActiveX or COM controls (although with Chipp's
>> altBrowser you can use them in a web browser, but that's different).
>
> I know Director can use ActiveX, what other x-plat tools can? Does
> RealBasic?
>>
>> 3) Inability to call "normal" (i.e. not developed specifically for 
>> Rev)
>> DLLs.
>
> Which x-plat development tools can do this?
>

The problem with these types of question -- "but aren't we as good as 
the other cross-platform tools?" -- is that most developers aren't 
asking whether other *cross-platform development* tools can do these 
things, they're asking whether *development* tools can do these things 
(because most developers don't really care about cross-platform 
development.)

With native API support, the ability to call native libraries (dlls, 
etc.), and the addition of a more widely-used syntax, RunRev could give 
the best single-platform tools a run for their money.  But as long as 
RunRev continues to make decisions based on its being just another 
cross-platform tool, then they will miss out on being the best tool, 
regardless of platform.

Just my 2p...

-- Frank Leahy

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