Rev's Mac-Centricity (Was: Plea to sell Dan's book widely)

Ken Ray kray at sonsothunder.com
Sat Aug 7 17:47:36 EDT 2004


On 8/7/04 12:19 PM, "Dan Shafer" <revdan at danshafer.com> wrote:

> Chipp.........
> 
> You knew I'd have to chime in here. :-)
> 
> Not simply to be contrarian, but I do not believe RR has any serious
> chance of making real inroads into other platforms.

Dan, you make a very compelling argument about the use of non-Bandwagon
Effect tools making inroads to other platforms. But before I agree with you,
I'd like to clarify some things that I've seen from my experience as well.

First of all, the main places I've seen where there are problems adopting
non-mainstream tools is in the *corporate* workplace - i.e. big companies.
Most big companies only feel comfortable using other big companies' tools,
primarily because they feel that the longevity of the company is not in
question, and that "if thousands of other developers are using the product,
why shouldn't we" (the Bandwagon Effect).

Also, keep in mind that most corporate settings only hire people into their
engineering space that have specific C/C++/Java/etc. backgrounds and so they
are by nature already biased towards specific tools. And the person (or
persons) who directs them would take an incredible risk to go with an
unknown (or little known) development environment for anything that is
mission critical. In the companies I worked for, tools like Rev were more
used for internal apps or prototyping situations when they were used at all.

So accordingly, it is in the *corporate* space that I see Rev (or other
tools for that matter) having little chance of making inroads.

However, I would disagree with you when it comes to the
small-to-medium-sized businesses out there. Most of them just want to "get
the job done", as quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively as possible.
Not that they are willing to go with an unknown because of the promise of
efficiency - they too care about longevity and support of the development
environment, but in those situations it is likely they don't have
programmers on staff and are having to contract out development. It is also
likely that it is someone near the top of the food chain at said company (a
manager or even the owner of the company if the company's small enough) that
will be dealing directly with the contract programmer(s) involved. They also
have little or no experience in what tools are out there, or what tools are
on the "bandwagon". So they are much more open.

*Here* is where Rev (and other tools of its ilk) *can* make inroads. All
that it takes is enough compelling evidence that RunRev isn't going
anywhere, that the underlying engine has been around for a decade, and that
it is the most efficient way to develop the application/product they want,
and it's a much higher chance that said company will allow for a tool like
Rev to be used.

This space is where I (and I'm sure others on this list) get most of the
contract work. Although I'm now a contractor, I used to be the Director of
Systems Development at a corporation with a dozen+ programmers under my
direction. At *that* time, it was nearly impossible to get MetaCard in the
door (although we had *some* success at it). Now, the people I deal with
mostly are small-to-medium-sized businesses that just want the job done. And
I've used MetaCard/Rev in over 70% of the jobs I've done over the last
several years.

And this discussion is primarily focused on Windows. I'm not sure if the
same sentiment (either Dan's or mine) relates to the Linux/Unix marketplace
(such as it is), since my experience there is very limited.

So to say "I do not believe RR has any serious chance of making real inroads
into other platforms" is a statement I both agree and disagree with.

:-)

Ken Ray
Sons of Thunder Software
Web site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/
Email: kray at sonsothunder.com




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