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[Ed McCabe]

Dan said:

I've resisted comment as long as I can. It's torture.

Most of my feelings have been expressed by others, but there is one
point that I think is perhaps under-appreciated.

The notion that we should add to the Transcript syntax to make the
program less "beginnerish" (which I agree it isn't anyway except
compared to the absolutely incomprehensible C and Perl languages, which
I few as write-only) just because we *can* misses a key point.

A new person coming into the environment and looking for how to do
something looks at scripts and docs. Unless you not only implement new
and more complex syntax *in addition to* the regular syntax rather than
instead of it, but also do not document it and discourage its use in
scripts a newbie is likely to stumble over while learning, you still
run the risk of alienating new programmers who look at the (let's face
it) ugly C-like syntax and immediately head for REALBasic. The only
other alternative, really, is to resort to levels or layers of access
in a (generally futile but well-intended) effort to hide this stuff
from people for whom it might be dangerous.

Nope. I'm with those who say to RunRev, "The syntax is beautiful. We
don't care if 'real programmers' (whoever *they* are) think it's
amateurish. We'll be happy to keep making a living by writing apps
faster and cheaper than all those professionals do because we have a
language that thinks like we do, not like the compiler does."

Dan out.


As an amateur programer/business owner who relies daily on HC stacks which I
constructed over 10 years ago and am now converting to Rev, I consider one
of the most important aspects of an high level X-talk script is that when I
revisit a script  years after I wrote it - I can read it and figure out what
I did & now need to do to enhance it.

I would not have had the time or patience to learn a "real programming
language" and been unable to develop the system I run my business on.

Now struggling with learning to take my systems onto the internet based on
the principles so aptly demonstrated at the seminar.

The quality of the professionals contributing to this list is the best
endorsement for Rev.

Well said Dan

Ed McCabe