RunRev and Linux

[David Bovill]

Good post Peter - I used to be a Linux only user of Rev and its potential on
that platform is fabulous, both in terms of the users and for RunRev in
terms of attracting hard core developers. Hang in there - remember November
is Rev everywhere :)

And how about Html 5, or Android front ends with a choice of Java, Python,
or Ruby calling the the Rev interpreter through C bindings on the server
Desktop and maybe even Android. In the world of mashup interop is key, and
Rev is in a good position to deliver for mobile - we just need to get the
community aspect right to be able to create the widgets and libraries faster
than the competition. And for that we need an open source strategy led by
the community and supported by RunRev - and we need Linux developers :)

On 11 April 2010 09:34, Peter Alcibiades <palcibiades-first at yahoo.co.uk>wrote:

>
> There are two questions, whether Ubuntu is the distribution of choice for a
> production environment, and whether Linux is the right platform to run
> Revolution on.
>
> The answer to the first question is no, use Debian Stable.  Ubuntu is the
> result of six monthly refreshings from Debian Experimental.  A production
> environment should use Debian Stable, if using a Debian based distribution
> at all, and only change out for the next version of Stable using apt-get
> dist-upgrade when this completes its move out of Testing, gets the Good
> Housekeeping Seal of Approval, and is marked Stable.
>
> You could also consider Slackware, famous for its stability, but its going
> to be more trouble to maintain.  In a production environment I would use
> either Debian or Slackware.  Maybe Open Suse could be a third possibility
> to
> consider.
>
> Is Rev on Linux a sensible choice for a production environment?  I wouldn't
> do it in its present form.  You'll be getting a version with substantial
> feature, stability and usability deficiencies compared to what you have
> now.
>
> It will be unusable on any monitor larger than 19 inch.  Fonts will not
> work
> properly.  Printing, both revPrintField and print card, will not work
> properly.  In my experience, the editor is so unstable as to be unusable.
> (Others however have not reproduced the editor issues that I have had).
> The IDE will not support basic desktop functionality - multiple virtual
> desktops.  It is said that this works perfectly well in the OSX version you
> have now, so if your users take advantage of virtual desktops, you will be
> losing that feature.  You will also find that important extra functionality
> of the IDE has migrated to plugins which will not run on Linux.  For
> instance, if you are using tRev, you'll find there is no Linux version.  If
> you use Rev Browser, that is not available in the Linux version.  If you
> use
> a Rev player, you'll find there isn't one.  You can use StackRunner, of
> course, and I have nothing but praise for it.  But its another step away
> from what you now have.
>
> I use nothing but Linux, and have never come upon an application from the
> Debian repositories which is of this poor quality.  Yes, there are some
> applications which have problems - the move from KDE 3.5 to 4 meant that
> many KDE apps had to be rewritten, and in the process there were some
> serious problems introduced, which took a while for users and developers to
> track down and fix.  But they were at least notified, acknowledged, and
> then
> fixed fairly promptly.
>
> People may think this is just a personal opinion caused by purely personal
> frustrations.  But if you go back through the list, you will find serious
> Linux users posting in escalatingly bad tempered terms until finally they
> leave in a fury.  Its not just me.
>
> The best advice one could give would be, get a workstation, put a 22 inch
> monitor on it, install Slackware (which means you will not be running
> Gnome,
> by the way), install only the three packages you speak of - Rev, Octave and
> R.  Maybe Office if you need it.  Geany - you are going to need a proper
> editor.  Give it to the most tolerant heavy user of Rev you have, ask
> him/her to use it exclusively for all development, and see how they feel at
> the end of a month or so.   You can be sure, if its Slackware, that any
> problems are not down to the distribution, and you can be sure that if mine
> are down to Debian, you will not get them, and you can be sure that you are
> not running into the instabilities which are fairly notorious with Ubuntu's
> release schedule.  ts about as pure a test as you'll get of whether you are
> safe to go ahead.
>
> It would be most valuable to Linux users of Rev, and maybe also to Rev the
> company, to have properly documented feedback on what you find, if you do
> this.  There is still time, just, to make Rev for Linux into a serious
> developer tool that one could recommend unequivocally, and maybe if enough
> of us work at it, we can document clearly what needs to be done, help in
> testing, and get it done.
>
> Personally, I am on the edge with this.  I have obtained a license for Real
> Basic, and I've got a copy of the best PyQT book, "Rapid Gui Programming
> with Python and Qt".  I have written an open letter to Kevin, which I am
> restraining myself from sending.  The Rev people are very nice, decent
> people, the list is wonderfully helpful and patient.  The language itself
> is
> superb, when it works.  Its just, if it doesn't have a usable editor,
> usable
> printing, proper font support, a readable IDE, how on earth am I supposed
> to
> get any work done in it?
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://n4.nabble.com/RunRev-and-Linux-tp1835808p1835896.html
> Sent from the Revolution - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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