newbie q about revolution

[Kay C Lan]

Dan's already voiced his opinions, so I'll add a few of my own:

On 5/22/06, John R. Sowden <jsowden at americansentry.net> wrote:
>
> I am a business person, not a professional programmer, but I create all of
> my internal apps,
> currently in Foxpro/DOS.


I use Rev as a hobby, never taken a computer/programming lesson in my life,
Rev suits me very nicely.


> 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.


Do this all the time. Your first one will definitely take longer, and there
is the Rev mindset that you need to come to grips with (a week or two) but
once the penny has dropped, you'll be wishing you'd found Rev earlier:-)


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

A most resounding YES! I do Rev front ends to mySQL dbs all the time -
probably more often than I should. It's just so easy.

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.


Your best resource will be this list. If you can't find it in the docs ( and
a lot of people cant') a call to this list will soon have you headed in the
right direction.


> 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?


I'm and OSX user, and as Dan mentioned the feeling is probably Rev is and
OSX, Windows then Linux product - in that order. I've seen quite a few
gripes about Rev on Linux, but the posters still keep coming back so I
assume that it's just that, a gripe, not a 'can't live with it'. I'm sure
some Linux users will step in here.

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!


>From an old guy with no computer training on Mac who just wants to tinker,
the options were/are pretty limited. We had HyperCard in the early days and
that was just brilliant - until it's untimely demise:-( I tried CodeWarrior
and C/C++ and always felt out of my depth (way out of my depth) and
certainly didn't enjoy, or at least wasn't as productive so never stuck with
it. The first version of Rev I came across (1.x) was 'to good to be true' -
it appeared to be the answer but had too many rough edges.

The current version is a much better product, not perfect by any stretch of
the imagination, but comprehensive enough that hobbiests like myself can
wade in as deep as we like but professional programmers get the tools to go
to depths I can't fathom, and companies get to sell rock solid products:-)

I recommend you give it a good solid trial, ask questions here, and then you
can determine if it is a diamond in the rough.

HTH