Visual Component Library

Scott Kane scott at proherp.com
Wed Jan 4 19:48:50 EST 2006


Hi Marielle

> Based on your Delphi experience, what would it take to provide a  
> library of pre-built components for revolution?

Well - to start with I don't have the knowledge to write
externals yet for Rev, so plugins would be difficult for
me to write.  However - there are heaps of cool stuff scattered
over the web from Rev programmers that would be easier to find
if placed in one location with the programmers URL included in
the listing.  Many Delphi developers create components for
various reasons.  The most obvious is to promote a trial version
of a solution.  Another is to advertise their product or service
via commercial component sets - or their unique service that they
offer users.  Others again simply submit code as freeware routines
as a present to the general community.  These elements are what
make Delphi such a powerful tool.  You can just about find anything
you want on a site like Torry's (which is the premier site, based
in Russia).  

To do this for Rev would not be hard.  What Maxim (the owner of Torry's_
does on www.torry.net )  is make available the opportunity for
commercial
vendors of components and services the chance to advertise on top of a 
normal listing and also a CD-ROM that comes out once a year.  From this
Maxim earns enough to keep the site going for the thousands of visitors
who visit each day.

Now to do this for Rev is going to be a little more limited as there
simply are not the volume of Rev developers, as yet at least, as there
are Delphi developers.  But, if we consider how the Delphi sites grew,
it is a matter of inertia in that once started it should grow.  Rev
has something that Delphi does not have and that is the integrated
Rev Online viewer.  I'm not sure how that would affect listings.
Torry's
success has been based, to a large extent, on incoming links placed on
developer websites to the library.  Sometimes the simplest routine is
placed in the resource so that a complete newbie has a chance of finding
what he/she needs to complete a portion of a project.  Rev has
incredible
power in many functions that come native that a newbie is going to
stumble
on.  For example - "How to connect to a Com port in Rev" and similar
snippets
are a newbie's bonanza and also help those more fluent in Rev to quickly
solve
an issue.  

Sorry for the size of my reply.  I'd be happy to discuss it further,
but perhaps off list...

Scott






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