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

[Ken Ray]

> While I think that's fundamentally true, it's also true that they look
> at total cost of ownership. And the big question that *I* hear when I
> propose to use Revolution to do a project centers on the question of
> long-term maintenance. That question, in turn, has two parts: (1) how
> long will the company (RunRev) be around; and (2) if Dan gets run over
> by a dinosaur, how easy will it be for me to find another Rev
> developer? 

So true, Dan. Those are the two critical questions that always need be
answered.

> I can usually get by the first one by explaining the whole
> engine story but the second has been a show stopper twice. In both
> cases, I simply passed on the contracts because, frankly, I don't want
> to get really good at any more programming languages. I'm getting too
> old. :-D

Hmm. Well, I seem to be able to get by on the second question by mentioning
that I personally know of a handful of seasoned Rev developers and offer to
give them the contact information for those people if it would help them
feel better about using Rev. (Of course I check with those developers first
to make sure it's OK to release that kind of info.)

>> *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.
> 
> I think you're right that the chances of getting the  small to medium
> sized company to adopt Rev is much higher than that of a corporation.
> But it's still not very high, IMNSHO.

Good question - a lot of it (in my experience) seems to be how knowledgeable
the client contact is. The more they know about programming languages, the
harder it is to convince them.

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