mTropolis refugees

[Janus Jakaterina]

First, thank you to the several people who responded.
I was led to this list by a comment from Heather Nagey
(Customer Support Manager. Runtime Revolution Ltd.) on
the mtropolis survivors list. Quark killed mTropolis
in 1998, but a survivors list still exists, even if
not very active, some seven years later. So what makes
a product worth following so long after its demise?  

mTropolis used a section, subsection, scene metaphor
(I understand Revolution uses a card metaphor and
Director uses a film metaphor). Every piece of media
is an asset. Drag modifier icons onto assets to give
them functionality, such as sending messages. Set the
parameters of a modifier with a window of pull-down
lists or fields. This concept of programming by
drag-and-drop icons is prevalent in Quickmedia
(http://www.omegaconcept.fr/index.php?oc=52), but what
set mTropolis apart was behaviors, basically
containers of modifiers that permitted complex actions
to be built up. A whole behavior could be switched on
or off or copied to other media (aliasing). Glen
Hunter does a good job of capturing the mTropolis
experience (see
http://www.cbd-hq.com/articles/2000/000501gh_mtropolis.asp):
a component-based development tool. The intuitive
interface and OOP power made development fast and --
get this -- fun.   

The mTropolis reference guide also set a standard. You
can d/l a copy (4.8 MB) at
http://www.arch.columbia.edu/DDL/cad/AOI/S99/basics/Reference.pdf
and the quick reference quide (260 kB) is at
http://www.arch.columbia.edu/DDL/cad/AOI/S99/basics/Quick_ref.pdf
.

That brings me to the present. Steve Goldberg, many
thanks for your thoughts. I just can't see behaviors
and aliasing in Revolution, however. Is it just an
interface thing or are they wrapped up in a whole
different architecture? Could a drag-and-drop
interface be made; has anybody tried? Doesn't
Revolution have a roll-your-own feeling with emphasis
on scripting rather than connecting components? 

With mTropolis I just dragged out my media and
modifiers and started snapping everything together.
With Revolution, well, I don't really know where to
begin. 

I seem to be suffering vertigo of the informational architecture.


		
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