use-revolution digest, Vol 1 #610 - 12 msgs

[Alan Gayne]

on 8/17/02 5:48 AM, Richard Gaskin at ambassador at fourthworld.com wrote:

>> With specific reference to the "reports generator" issue, I must admit that
>> I am at a loss why the people at RunRev have made a concerted effort to
>> reach an agreement with the current owner of Reports DataPro, who I believe
>> is Bob Greenberg at rpControl LLC.  This is EXACTLY what RunRev needs to
>> jump-start widespread usage of the Revolution environment.
> 
> It shouldn't be necessary:  the Reports DataPro product is Mac-specific, and
> rewriting it to run on the 12 Rev-supported operating systems would likely
> be a lot more expensive than just writing it once in native Transcript.
> 
> I have yet to find a printing layout that couldn't be handled by the Rev/MC
> engine.  so the core tools are there -- the trick is to build a good UI and
> a library of easy-to-use handlers, to provide the simplicity that something
> like Reports DataPro does, so we won't have to keep reinventing printing
> routines.


Richard:

I am in COMPLETE agreement about not having to reinvent printing routines.
My continue reference to Reports DataPro is simply my way of pointing out
that getting this job done should be the NUMBER ONE PRIORITY for the people
at RunRev now that the environment is relatively stable.

Of course it might pay to recall that Reports DataPro was a fairly
successful commercial endeavor by 3rd parties who who saw and addressed a
critical need that was NOT addressed by Apple/Claris in respect to
Hypercard.

Maybe that's the answer.  A LOT of special features were done by third
parties, mostly in the for of XFCNs and XCMDs, which greatly enhanced the
USABILITY of Hypercard. Most of these were freeware or shareware but some,
like Reports DataPro were commerially successful.  These "goodies" were
createdby people who loved Hypercard and their work product helped other
people, such as myself, to love WORKING with Hypercard.

So there it is.  If the people who love Revolution DO THEIR JOB, people like
me will love to USE Revolution to DO OUR JOBS - which means the things that
we actually do for a living.  For most of us, that is not programming
computers.  In my particular case, I am an insurance underwriter.

Alan