Contrib to old topics - why isn't Rev more popular?

Ken Apthorpe ken.apthorpe at optusnet.com.au
Mon Feb 13 09:10:15 EST 2006


As you know I'm a newbie to Rev, but this gives what seems (in this forum) to
be a fairly unique perspective.  Most of you are either experts, or well up
the curve. So maybe I can give you the perspective of a (possible) new Rev
user.

It's the Docs that are the problem for newbies, and it's the docs that turn
us away.  I tried Rev in about 2003, and decided it was just too hard. I was
hoping things had got a bit easier by now, but it dosn't look like it to me.

Now before you tell me I'm lazy, here's where I've been.  To the Rev site
tutorials of course. To the BYU site, to go through their Rev lessons.  To
nearly every site in the Rev web ring, to look at tutorials.  To the Rev Ed
site at widget.com.  I've downloaded the Scripters Scrapbook (which I'll buy
if I persist with Rev). And I've downloaded lots of sample stacks to see how
people do things.

I haven't go very far because nobody else has made an app remotely like the
one I need.  Well Doc Messimer made Preceptor, which is vaguely similar, but
I didn't like the GUI.

The Docs.  Here is an example of what newbies face. You can LOL, but this is
the problem.  You have all forgotten how much you know, and you forget to
mention the really simple basic things.

I wanted a pulldown menu button to go into a stack menu; the submenu items
are to open cards in the mainstack.  The here is what the Docs say about the
message for a submenu item:

menuPick chosenItem[|submenuName],previousTab

on menuPick theItem -- in a pulldown menu
  if theItem is "Close" then close the defaultStack
  else if theItem is "Quit" then quit
end menuPick

This message is obviously for a main menu like File, where you want Close or
Quit.  But its no help to me when I just want to open a card in the
mainstack. Also, do I insert it exactly as shown with [    ] around
submenuName?  The docs don't say.  And the vertical slash.  It said
somewhere that on Mac I should do this with option-shift-L.  But my keyboard
has a vertical slash key.  When I do option-shift-L on my keyboard I get Ò.
So, do I use my slash, or not? And, what's that previousTab thing on the end
for??

Anyway, I tried all the possibilities and none worked.  So then I went
hunting on the web for an example I could copy.  Good grief.

Perhaps you see the problem. The Docs are great if you have some idea of
what your doing.  If you are trying to learn what to do, they are are of
little use, or just a source of teeth gnashing frustration.

That's why Rev isn't more popular.

I agree with those that say Rev needs something in addition to the tutorials
for newbies.  I think they need sets of simple working examples with a
variety of script examples.

I'll finish with an analogy.  Back in the days when getting up a web site
was all the rage, the hand coders would sneer at WSIWYG web tools like the
early versions of Dreamweaver and Cyberstudio.  Now what are even the
professionals using?  Dreamweaver and GoLive. There is a lesson in there for
Rev I think.

Ken





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