newbie q about revolution

[Dan Shafer]

I'm sure you'll get lots of answers...and opinions on this one. Here's my
best first shot.

On 5/21/06, John R. Sowden <jsowden at americansentry.net> wrote:
>
> Revolution seems to be my solution for writing business apps.  I am a
> business
> person, not a professional programmer, but I create all of my internal
> apps,
> currently in Foxpro/DOS.  A couple of questions:
>
> The description says the program creates "stand alone" executables.  To me
> this means no "run time", no "token compiling", but it may mean external
> libraries.  Is this true?


Yes, basically. The "external libraries" are typically written in Revolution
itself and compiled with the standalone, making installation a breeze.

How big is "Hello World", meaning how much baggage (code bloat) is included
> in
> the executable?


Last I checked, the minimum standalone size is about  2.5MB give or take
depending on the platform. Judicious settings in the compilation process
can, I think, make this number smaller but I've never been motivated to do
so.


Does revolution lend itself to creating  simple applications quickly?
> Example, I can create a simple name/address database application in
> Foxpro/DOS with menu, add, edit, search, select index, etc. in about 1
> hour
> including creating the database structure.


I've never seen anything quicker for building apps than Revolution. Once
you're facile with the tool, an hour would be an outside time for creating
the kind of app you describe here. There are more data storage choices with
Rev, some of which can greatly speed up development and execution.

Is a database application, without multimedia features a good use of this
> product?


Definitely.

Are there any hidden problems that are not discussed in the web/faq, etc.,
> like "copy protection" methods that require dongles, keeping the licensed
> program on the computer/lan that the compiled application is running on,
> etc.


Nothing along htose lines. Clearly any tool has its quirks and
idiosyncracies, but as for formal blocks or deployment issues, they don't
exist with Rev.

My operating system of choice is linux (currently Suse 9.3), not a windows
> os.
> Is this a good match, or is this a windows product that usually runs on
> Linux,
> with little support?


Actually, it's a product that's probably more Mac-centric than anything else
but apps you make with it run fine on all three platforms (Mac, Win, *nix).
I'm not sure what the developer experience is like on Linux; I've never used
it there. I'll leave that to others more knowledgeable than i.

The old adage, "if it looks to good to be true, it probably is" keeps
> ringing
> in my mind, but revolution could also be a minimally marketed diamond in
> the
> rough!


Rev is definitely in the latter category.

Thanks in advance,
>
> --
> John R. Sowden
> AMERICAN SENTRY SYSTEMS, INC.
> Residential & Commercial Alarm Service
> UL Listed Central Station
> Serving the San Francisco Bay Area Since 1967
> mail at americansentry.net
> www.americansentry.net
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>



-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Shafer, Information Product Consultant and Author
http://www.shafermedia.com
Get my book, "Revolution: Software at the Speed of Thought"
>From http://www.shafermediastore.com/tech_main.html