Why is Konfabulator "Pretty?"

[Bill Marriott]

So the question is, WHY aren't there more of them for Rev?

The K. site lists over 1500 "widgets" that do everything from display RSS 
feeds to displaying the current position of the International Space Station.

HyperCard used to have this kind of excitement and buzz...

Just 10 widgets that "look" like these -- templates that could easily be 
customized by novices -- would kindle some excitement about Rev.

I'm not on a mission to prove Rev inferior here, but that is how you're 
taking it. I'm trying to suggest ways that could elevate the product ... and 
deeply analyze any differences and limitations of each.

I don't disagree with you that many if not most of these Widget things could 
be done with Rev. Instead of arguing, you could instead take this up -- you 
mentioned, I think, that you were an investor. So talk to Rev. Get them to 
hire someone (Rossi?) to make a few key "widget-esque" templates, or sponsor 
a contest.

Try an inexpensive marketing program that positions DreamCard as the 
ultimate cross-platform "Widget Kit for Mortals." See what kind of press 
coverage you could get from being a "sleeper hit" -- people love that kind 
of stuff.

I also don't appreciate how you keep changing "the original premise." It's 
called a "straw man fallacy" and you can read about it here:

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html

I *said*

"About five to seven years behind the curve in UI. The reason why programs
like "Konfabulator" get the attention is that they create widgets/programs
that look modern/exciting, almost "by default." The same look-and-feel can
be created with RunRev, but it's a lot more difficult."

Instead of trying to prove me wrong or make me sound more negative about Rev 
that I am, why don't you say -- hey, here's a not-too-stupid guy with Rev on 
his desktop for a couple years now, and he's got the perception it's hard to 
make pretty stuff with Rev. How many people share that perception? Gosh, 
what can we do about that? How can we steal some thunder from these 
Johnny-come-latelys?

So go ahead and make is EASIER. Make it obvious. Or at least make it *LOOK* 
easy.

- Make a sample RSS displayer that could be tweaked easy with new graphics 
and a different URL.

- Make something that can play an Internet radio station with some cool 
logos and equalizer effects

- One of the top Widgets is a Calvin and Hobbes fetcher. A guy called "DMP" 
has something that does this for a site called uComics. (But it doesn't 
work.) Get that thing brushed up, gel-ified, airbrushed.

- A little flower that sits on your desktop in K. has received almost 10,000 
downloads! All it does it change color! 
http://www.widgetgallery.com/index.php?search=flower

- How hard would it be to write a little search Widget that does FedEx, UPS, 
USPS, Google, Wikipedia, Answers.com, etc., like a couple dozen of them do 
on the K. site?

- A HotOrNot widget?

- Some kind of limited-time-only, registration required, free download of 
DreamCard with a modicum of documentation to get the ball rolling for 
user-submitted Widgets.

What could you tell people about RunRev if it *REALLY* took an hour for 
someone to make one of these pretty gizmos???

Bill

"Richard Gaskin" <ambassador at fourthworld.com> wrote 
in message news:4395D4F0.7070905 at fourthworld.com...
> Bill Marriott wrote:
>> - if someone wants to create an exact replica of the K. clock in Rev, 
>> they should give up, which is what I did :)
>
> Or while we wait for enhancements to the rotate command just make any of 
> the other widgets/gadgets that don't rely on that command, which would be 
> 99.99% of what's out there.
>
> Remember, the original premise was that it was difficult to made 
> widgets/gadgets at all.  True, you stumbled across one which is 
> particularly difficuly to reproduce pixel-for-pixel in Rev, but there are 
> several thousand others which could be done with relative ease.
>
> --
>  Richard Gaskin
>  Managing Editor, revJournal
>  _______________________________________________________
>  Rev tips, tutorials and more: http://www.revJournal.com
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