A Revolution beginner seeks advice...

[Bill Vlahos]

On Feb 16, 2005, at 10:15 AM, Karen wrote:

> So at the moment I'm tempted to buy a licence for Revolution (Dreamcard
> seems nice but limited since I'd like to be able to build standalone
> applications).  I'm still playing around with the demo to try 
> converting
> some REALbasic apps to Revolution to get a feel for what it can and 
> can't
> do.
Building standalones is very nice and probably worth it to you. 
Dreamcard is a good beginner/hobbyist license.
>
> However, I have some questions that I was hoping that you might be 
> able to
> help with.  My main concern is learning the Revolution scripting 
> language,
> which seems quite a bit different to anything I'm used to.  Is there a
> shortcut to doing this - would the book "Software at the Speed of 
> Thought"
> be a help here?  Is it worth getting the printed manuals?  Am I best 
> just to
> rely on the various web resources?
Dan's book is terrific and you would likely get a lot out of them. I 
would only get the printed manuals if you find the online help 
cumbersome or you just want to curl up with a printed book. I purchased 
the printed manuals to have as a reference but I rarely use them 
because the online system is so good combined with this email list 
which is outstanding.
>
> I also wonder about the "Update pack" - it seems pretty expensive, is 
> it
> worth buying?  Or am I best to wait until an update appears that I 
> really
> want and then take out a renewal?  Given that I've sunk a lot of money 
> into
> REALbasic, I'm keen to keep any new expenditure down!
Revolution has consistently improved with each version. Unless you know 
for sure that you want to stay on the Revolution road (I do and have 
never regretted it) I'd go ahead and see how much you like the current 
version first. It is a very complete development system as it is now. 
You can always decide to upgrade later.

Welcome to the Revolution.

Bill Vlahos