Suggestion for correcting the IDE's script editor AND Endless ranting and rude insults AND other points

[Richard Gaskin]

M Young wrote:
> Richard Gaskin Tue, 28 Jun 2005 21:53:49 -0700: A lot of people from a 
> wide range of programming backgrounds have learned Rev easily with the 
> help of the folks here.
> MY: Very true, however I find that the old x-talk hands on this list 
> expect all new Rev users to be programming neophytes. "Dan [Shafer] 
> coined the term "Inventive User" to describe people who use programs 
> like Revolution to create solutions to their own problems without 
> necessarily becoming professional programmers in the process." ( 
> http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit/RevConWest/Sponsors.htm )

Those are someone else's words, not mine.  The "low-hanging fruit" of 
refugees from other xTalks has pretty much been picked long ago.  If Rev 
is to grow it will come from two categories:

- The "inventive users" Dan talks about, tinkerers by nature who want to 
experience the joy of building useful things for themselves and others.

- Professional developers, who by virtue of being developers already 
have a current favorite language.

This makes for a difficult challenge in documenting Rev:  it must appeal 
to those with no previous programming experience at all, and must also 
appeal to those for whom Rev is a second (or third or fourth) language.

Every language has its indiosynchracies, but since Transcript is a 
proprietary language this multiplies the above documentation challenges 
by an order of magnitude.  There's a team at RunRev working on the docs 
year 'round, and they tend to get better with each release.  Dropping a 
note into Bugzilla about errors and ommissions helps guide that process, 
and the folks at RR definitely read this list.

There are some orientation materials for programmers familiar with 
languages like C++ and Java -- worth at least a skim:
<http://support.runrev.com/resources/c_java.php>

For everything else there's experimentation and this list.  You'll never 
hear me hold experienced programmers in disdain; on the contrary I feel 
their input is valuable in helping the language grow and the product's 
marketing expend its reach.



> Richard Gaskin Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:44:22 -0700: In its most basic form, 
> a Rev script editor is just a field in a stack. The field is loaded with 
> the script in response to the editScript message (trappable in a 
> frontScript if you want to get the message before the Rev editor does), 
> and the script is just a property saved to the object with the save 
> command ("set the script of <obj> to <script>"). It's not all that hard 
> to make a place to type if that's all you need. Or you can use 
> Constellation. Or BBEdit. Or the MC IDE. Or.....
> MY: Is the information on how to swap out editors, capture editScript 
> message, and etc. obvious to someone new to programming or coming from 
> another programming environment? I could not find how to swap out the 
> editor in the Revolution application documentation by using "Search 
> for:" in Topics, Dictionary or Objects.

All true, but try to be a bit forgiving:  as another reader pointed out, 
for all the activity on this list it's hard to find posts that regard 
Rev's auto-formatting as a bad thing.

Yes, there are ways to write your own editor, and even your own IDE, but 
those usually aren't topics newcomers start with. :)

Patience, grasshopper. :)


> Other points:
> 1. All Runtime Revolution owners, investors, contractors, 
> subcontractors, etc., i.e. anyone who financially benefits from the sale 
> of Runtime Revolution products, should somehow acknowledge it in their 
> list signature line, since not all new users to the list know who is 
> making money on the deal. For example, one unnamed poster does not 
> acknowledge in their signature line a Runtime Revolution affiliation 
> that is really quite important for others to know.

In external forums where advocacy may be an issue, I would agree in 
principle.  And as an individual I like sig lines that tell me a bit 
about where a person's coming from (though I prefer those that adhere to 
the six-lines-or-less convention).

But here in this Revolution list I don't think it's critical.  You can 
pretty much assume everyone here is some form of stakeholder, just as 
you would on any other product's list:  casual users, professional 
developers, contractors and employees alike all benefit from Rev's 
growth, and just about all of them will play an advocacy role at one 
time or another. That's just what fans do.


--
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
  _______________________________________________________
  Rev tips, tutorials and more: http://www.revJournal.com