noob questions

[Dan Shafer]

On Feb 21, 2005, at 11:22 AM, Mikey wrote:

> Gang,
> I've used HC for FOREVER.  We have several active stacks that are
> still part of our corporate structure.  However, we also use a number
> of other IDE's, so before we fork over for yet another toolkit, I need
> to be able to justify it.
>
If you're using HC extensively, you're gonna love Rev! I guarantee it.

> Please forgive all the noob questions.  I'm sure I'll have a pile of
> them.  The RR people have told me I need to go over here to get them
> answered.
>
they're right. I'll answer the questions I know the answers to. Others 
will, I'm sure, be answered by other folks.

> 1) Can I create my own classes?  I see somewhere that I can create
> custom properties, but I didn't see how.
You cannot create your own classes. Transcript (Rev's language) is not 
object-oriented. Custom properties are immensely useful but they do not 
take the place of the ability to create whole new classes or types of 
buttons or other objects.

(Custom properties are on the dropdown menu in each object inspector.)

> 2) Is there more internet protocol code available, e.g. POP3, SMTP,
> telnet, etc.?  I know I can write it since I wrote my own mail server
> in another IDE, but I'd prefer not to.
There is a fair amount of great stuff available. Shao Sean has created 
an SMTP/POP email library that is dead-simple to use and extensible if 
you need it. Andre Garzia has created servers of a number of flavors 
and is always up for creating new ones.

> 3) Is UDP supported in the sockets goop?
> 4) Is there some way to have substacks or different stacks running in
> different processes?
> 5) Where the heck are the manuals?  It's hard to RTFM when the docs
> that come with the demo are, to say the least, sparse.
Acutally, the docs are far from sparse, they're just not immediately 
obviously usable. Every single element of the Transcript syntax has an 
entry in the online docs, which are really quite good.

And I have modified a substantial portion of my HyperTalk book to 
create "Software at the Speed of Thought," a book available through the 
RunRev online store.

> 6) Report writer - not included with the demo, need to know more.
Report writing is not a strength with Rev. You can do some basic stuff 
and, with some serious scripting, some not-so-basic stuff. But serious 
reporting will require a third party add-on. There isn't one in release 
yet but one of our stalwart members is close to releasing a dynamite 
product that works better than Reports for HyperCard ever did.

> 7) It appears that there is an HTML-rendering window type included,
> but I don't see any documentation on it.
Not really. Rev has the ability to render a small (tiny) subset of HTML 
in text fields. This enables some use of formatted text but not much. 
However, Altuit, a major player in the Revolution space, offers a 
fairly complete implementation of a full-blown Web browser component as 
altBrowser, which you can buy petty cheap.

> 8) It would appear that the only difference between the versions of RR
> is SSL.  Is that right?
>
> TIA
> -- 
> On the first day, God created the heavens and the Earth
> On the second day, God created the oceans.
> On the third day, God put the animals on hold for a few hours,
>    and did a little diving.
> And God said, "This is good."
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