OT2: The 'realness' of languages

[George C Brackett]

I too do 'rapid prototyping,' but I'm convinced that with Revolution  
I'm very much more productive than I ever was in the other languages  
I've used.  I'm curious, though, why you don't think Revolution is  
appropriate for 'the building' although it will do for 'the plan.'   
Frankly, the programs I write in Revolution are just as robust as the  
13 published  in educational software programs I wrote in languages  
varying from Applesoft Basic to Forth to various assembly languages to  
C to C++.  And I would far rather try to add a feature or fix a bug in  
Revolution than in those other languages!

My wife did point out the issue of maintenance, should I not be the  
maintainer (at 65, I should have a few years left though).  I agree  
with you that a programmer speaking another language should be able to  
do a conversion pretty easily.  But a client's concern about the  
possible need to convert is certainly legitimate.

Anyway, I'm happily prototyping in Revolution for a 'real' educational  
publisher, and they're happily playing with and learning from my 'not- 
ready-for-prime-time' prototypes, so the loss of the occasional client  
isn't an issue.  And as viktoras observed, Rev's capabilities are  
increasing all the time.  The advent of a Rev browser plugin will be  
particularly important for my work in education!

George

On Dec 22, 2008, at 1:07 PM, Randall Reetz wrote:

I use xtalk IDEs because i do "rapid"(?) prototyping.  I dont expect  
my projects to be the finished market facing product.  On the other  
hand, i sure wish there was a way to automatically dump an xtalk  
project into java or C or even flash.

Nobody expects an architect to build the building.  Nobody would want  
an architect to use a back hoe to design a building.  The real issue  
is efficiency of development.  If a person can do way more in an xtalk- 
man hour then (in some circumstances) a project can be built that  
would otherwise be too expensive to considder.  This is the sweetspot  
of the xtalk development market.  That rev provides cross platform  
distribution... That is the great leveler missing in many other rapid  
dev. tools.

Because xtalk is so english like, any good C or java programmer can do  
a line by line conversion without knowing xtalk itself.

randall
-----Original Message-----
From: "Stephen Barncard" <stephenREVOLUTION2 at barncard.com>
To: "How to use Revolution" <use-revolution at lists.runrev.com>
Sent: 12/22/2008 9:29 AM
Subject: Re: OT2: The 'realness' of languages

>
> After I told her I used Revolution for its rapid-development and
> cross-platform capabilities, a subtle change occurred in the
> conversation.
> She began talking about how I might help with the design, but that
> of course when the design was finished a software firm would take
> over the development (presumably in some 'real' language like C).  I
> didn't bother to tell her I COULD write in C, Java, PERL, PHP and so
> on, because it would be extraordinarily painful to do so.

Why not tell her that then, if you felt you lost anyway? The only
answer to fight the myths is education.

This is similar to the 'loudness wars' in the music business, where
untrained amateur 'mastering' engineers and forced professionals are
making LOUD CDs, even though they know they're trampling the dynamics
and it makes the music worse.  Loud CDs use 'hypercompression' - not
data compression but audio compression in the digital realm, which is
at first interesting but eventually tedious to listen to. (think
Ricky Martin and Britany for extremes)
The myth is that these records sound 'better' on the radio, but they
really don't. But the myth really goes back to the vinyl days, that
had limitations: if it was cut too soft it would be enveloped in
noise. On the other hand there was a limit to how much time you could
put on a disc. Louder records were shorter in length, quieter were
longer.  That's why Miles Davis's 'In A Silent Way' is so quiet.
Almost an hour playing time!

>
> Has anyone else run into this issue?  Do you dodge the 'what is it
> written in' question?  How can we raise the profile of Revolution as
> a 'real' language?  (Never mind what religion it might resemble!)
>
> George
>

-- 


stephen barncard
s a n  f r a n c i s c o
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