More New-be Curiousity Questions

[Alex Tweedly]

Typing80wpm at aol.com wrote:

>Thanks! That link on comparisons between Dreamcard and Revolution is just  
>what I needed!
>  
>
> 
>Questions: 
>  
>
I can't properly answer any of the DB questions - but here are my 
opinions on the others.

> 
>1.) If I spend a year developing some great application in Dreamcard, then  
>is moving it to Revolution simply a matter of purchasing Revolution (will the  
>same source code produced run in either environment)?
>  
>
Yes

>4.)  Does Revolution/Dreamcard give one a way to, lets say, present a  
>dialogue similar to Explorer, choose a path, choose a file, and then open that  
>WIndows file and read and write to it randomly, byte by byte?  I have  something 
>in Liberty Basic which does that. Just curious if anyone in this list  uses 
>Liberty Basic or has any opinions pro or con?
>  
>
Yes it does. Here's a little script to totally mangle a JPEG file :-)
  answer file "What is file containing the photo ?" with "D:/Our 
Documents/Alex Photos/x.jpg" with filter "JPEGs,*.jpg"
  put it into theFileName
  open file theFileName for binary update
  read from file theFileName at 100 for 4 characters
  put it into myData
  write myData to file theFileName at 200

Sorry - never used Liberty Basic.

> 
>5.) When I download a trial version of Dreamcard or Revolution, is it ok to  
>download at work, where I have a fast T1, put it on a cd, and install and 
>unlock  at home (where I have slow dial-up) and then just enter the unlock key?
> 
>  
>
Yes.

>8.) When I finish developing an application, then is that entire  application 
>expressed solely in the form of script files, viewable in any  editor, or are 
>there some components of the application which are in some kind  of object or 
>format which is not editable. I realize that if one  deploys/distributes 
>applications, they are in some compiled or tokenized form so  the code remains 
>proprietary. That is not what I am asking.  I am thinking  that if the final 
>application is defined by editable files of coding/script,  then it is possible to 
>write a program in some language to output that code,  whereas if the final 
>application has template files which are not plain ascii  script, then it would 
>not be easy to programatically output a script file.   I am asking this 
>question mainly out of curiosity, to get a feeling for what a  finished application 
>is like, in source form.
>  
>
No, it's not entirely text script files. It's a stack, which includes 
the scripts but also the graphical components. You could write a script 
to convert one of those to text, or to read a text file and re-construct 
a stack - but I find it hard to think what you would gain from it.

> 
>9.)  Is there a data type which is fixed point penny accurate BCD type  
>decimal arithematic, which would allow accurate calculations with money in a  
>buisness application.
>Is there a floating point type of variable?  
>  
>
There is no "currency" type. There is (effectively) a floating 
(double-prec) type, in that variable are typeless, and will behave like 
a double-prec floating value except when they appear like integers or 
strings.

>10.) I stumbled across Dreamcard/Revolution while I was searching for  
>information on Python.  I had downloaded a version of Python yesterday, and  when I 
>ran it, was somewhat startled to see a DOS type black window open up. 
>
Ahhh - you wanted Pythoncard, not basic Python.

>Is  Revolution related to Python in any way?  
>
smart-ass answer: Yes, they're both equally good, but very different.
real answer: No.

>Does Dreamcard/Revolution  development happen right in Windows, just like, e.g. Visual Basic IDE, or does  it take place in one of those black DOS Windows.
>  
>
It's like VB, only even more integrated. The development environment IS 
the running application environment. Most of the time, this just feels 
like VB only smoother - occasionally it turns out to open up some really 
powerful possibilities.

> 
>11.) When I purchase Dreamcard/Revolution, do I receive a box with  CD,s   
>and are the video training portions on a DVD, or VHS, or how  does that work? 
>Just curious.
>  
>
I purchased it on-line, and downloaded the program, docs, etc. Training 
videos are also on-line.
There may be options to get physical CDs etc. (certainly are for paper 
docs), but I think the great majority of users got it on-line.

-- 
Alex Tweedly       http://www.tweedly.net



-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.7 - Release Date: 12/04/2005