Andy's comments and positioning...

Mark Powell Mark.Powell at veritas.com
Wed Feb 4 17:10:24 EST 2004


Being a veteran of HyperCard wars at Apple, I could not agree more with
Chipp's assessment.  It is perception and (in part) simple name recognition.

Case in point, I go into my management and say "I need x dollars budget to
develop this utility".  "What are you developing in?" they ask.  If I say
C++ or VB, they stroke their metaphorical chins and with gravitas,
acknowledge regretfully the necessity of such an outlay.  If I say
"Revolution", they look they're being lobbied by Dennis Kucinich.  Don't let
the door hit you in the butt.  It is a comfort factor.

I think the positioning angle (I am very sorry to say), demands that Rev
strive to be more agnostic as far as Mac vs. Wintel is concerned.  The few
people I have spoken to who have ever heard of Revolution think of it as a
Macintosh-only thing.  That turns off a heckuva lot of potential users
before they even have a chance to learn any better.

Other things that developers can adopt are what I call placebo features,
whose presence is solely to soothe a user into feeling that their app has
been developed in a "professional" SDE.  One example is the cursor set (that
I believe Chipp distributes) that turns the telltale hand cursor into the
more familiar OS like cursor.  It is without reason from a purist's point of
view, but so if wearing a business suit to board meeting.  Perception.

All in all my advice is don't get angry at people who simply can't see the
forest for the trees.  As my dad used to say to me:  "Don't tell me.  Show
me."  Revolution needs compelling apps whose appearance and functionality
don't telegraph how they were developed.

Mark Powell


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