RunRev to create email kiosk under MacOSX

[Sarah Reichelt]

Hi Jim,

>  I want to create an email kiosk application for my grandmother (yes, 
> one shot in a million, but it won't cost me anything other than 
> programming time..), using a combination of RunRev, shell scripting, 
> and maybe a little Cocoa to do things like disable force quit.   Is 
> this a good idea (to do it in RunRev), considering that this *has* to 
> be rock-solid (I'm planning a scheduled reboot about once every 4 
> days, the rest of the time time machine just waking up and going back 
> to sleep), or should I just consider something like Cocoa or 
> Applescript Studio?
>
I have a kiosk application running with a couple of apps built in Rev, 
one of which is the main user interface and the other is a specialized 
email client. It is rock solid and I think your scheduled reboot every 
4 days is totally unnecessary. My systems run 24/7 and only reboot when 
I do a software update.

My job is slightly easier since my users have no keyboard access, but 
there are a few tricks I would recommend:

Make your app full screen and then hide the menubar. This also hides 
the dock.
You will need to set the size on opening the stack because it will get 
shrunk by the windowBoundingRect.
Use a utility to make sure your app is always at the front and on 
resumeStack, check the size & placement of your stack & hide the 
menubar again. I use KeepItUp but an AppleScript in your stack would do 
the same.
Disable automatic software updating.
Consider Timbuktu or Apple Remote Desktop so you can troubleshoot 
remotely.

For your particular application:
Keep the buttons large and don't show too many options on a single 
screen.
If your grandmother has arthritis, make keyboard shortcuts for 
everything.
Set the screen res or the font so that the text is big & easy to read.
Check out the POP library at my web site. I have an SMTP library too if 
you would like a look although I haven't officially released it yet.

Cheers,
Sarah
sarahr at genesearch.com.au
http://www.troz.net/Rev/