Best source for examples

[Trevor DeVore]

On Feb 27, 2006, at 8:49 AM, Andy wrote:

> Can anyone point me to some resources, examples etc for Rev? I'm  
> new to it
> (i.e. last Friday), and being a PHP programmer, I'm still trying to  
> get my
> head around the concepts!

Hi Andy,

I imagine you have 2.7 so check out Help->Getting Started and Help- 
 >User Guide.  Also check out the Rev scripting conferences at  
<http://downloads.runrev.com/section/scriptingconferences.php>.

Having moved from PHP as a primary development language to Rev, I  
would recommend the following:

1) Get really familiar with the Revolution message path.   
Understanding the message path can bring you joy, not understanding  
the message path will bring you pain ;-)  Check out Richard Gaskin's  
article on it "Extending the Runtime Revolution Message Path" at  
<http://www.fourthworld.com/embassy/articles/ 
revolution_message_path.html>

2) Become familiar with chunk expressions and the Transcript array.   
Transcript doesn't have objects and arrays like PHP but you will find  
that you can often use Transcript "lists" where you used PHP arrays  
and Transcript "arrays" where you used PHP objects.  You just need to  
get into the Transcript mindset.  Open the User Guide from 2.7 and  
search for Array.  That should bring up some useful information.  The  
scripting conference has a session on chunks.

3) Search for "start using" in Help->Dictionary.  This is basically  
what you can use as a replacement for "require" and "include" in PHP  
if you have code you want available everywhere in a project.

4) Unfortunately, Revolution doesn't have any application frameworks  
that are publicly available at the moment.  This means everyone is  
kind of on their own.  You have to create your own standard  
libraries, user data storage routines (prefs and application state  
such as window positions, etc.).  This isn't a show stopper but is a  
HUGE barrier to entry for new developers IMO.  Look at creating your  
own libraries (see point 3) of common routines.

Hopefully that will get you started.

-- 
Trevor DeVore
Blue Mango Learning Systems - http://www.bluemangolearning.com
trevor at bluemangolearning.com