Why 10 hours for a newbie and 30 days for a "programmer" ?

[Alex Tweedly]

At 15:36 01/09/2004 -0500, Chipp Walters wrote:

>Dan, I agree with you. It all depends on who's perspective you're looking 
>at this from.
>
>For me to take 10 hours to evaluate a $99 purchase, doesn't make sense. Of 
>course, for others, it may make sense.
>
>I'm curious how many hours other developers spent with trial versions of 
>RR before committing any $$? The first time I played with RR for about 2 
>hours and then bought it.

I probably spent between 20 and 30 hours. I am not a professional user (I 
have been a professional software developer - but RR is purely for my own 
leisure activity). I had never used Hypercard (except maybe 30 minutes 
playing with once), so had no in-built bias towards RR. Of course, I wasn't 
evaluating spending $99 - I spent the non-US price for Rev Express, plus a 
year's update, plus a sub to the on-line book - so more like $400.

If I had known there was a time limit, I think I'd have been able to do my 
evaluation comfortably within that time - and I would not still be a user. 
At the ten hour time-frame, I was very frustrated by RR and Transcript, and 
wondering why on earth there were all these enthusiastic, smart people on 
this mail list who were convinced that it was absolutely wonderful; if it 
hadn't been for them, I'd have abandoned RR then regardless of any time limit.

(Actually, I still am frequently frustrated by RR and Transcript - but I 
also know the other side of the story now :-)

-- Alex.