newbie q about revolution

[Phil Davis]

Welcome to the list, John.

John R. Sowden 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?
>  
>
In general, no libraries (DLLs etc); just a single .exe file on Windows, 
and similar experience on all other platforms. The standalone apps you 
build will run at speeds very acceptable for commercial apps.

>How big is "Hello World", meaning how much baggage (code bloat) is included in 
>the executable?
>  
>
I just created a "hello world" app to see. But it did take about 3-4 
minutes, because I messed around with the font settings rather than 
using defaults.
- Windows = 1731K
- Mac OSX = 2185K
- Linux = 2360K

This is about the minimum app size. But as you add complexity and 
features to your app you DON'T necessarily see a proportionate increase 
in size, since text scripting doesn't take up much space. Most major app 
size increases come from embedded media - images, movies, etc.

>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.
>  
>
In my opinion, you absolutely wouldn't have thought this kind of 
development speed was possible.

>Is a database application, without multimedia features a good use of this 
>product?
>  
>
I'll let some of the Db geniuses on the list answer this. I think 
basically Rev's suitability for this depends on the size of the DB.

>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.
>  
>
No. You build something with your licensed copy of Rev and it's your 
product. If you want to require your customers to use a dongle, that's a 
different issue.

>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?
>  
>
Linuxites, chime in here please! (I do Mac & Win mostly)

>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!
>  
>
You can make up your own mind on this. But I can certainly say that it's 
my favorite tool of all time, and I've been writing software 
professionally since 1978. For me there's no going back.

>Thanks in advance,
>  
>
Again, welcome John!
Phil Davis