Is Rev too "Mac focused"?

[Jerry J]

> From: Chipp Walters <chipp at chipp.com>
> Subject: Re: Is Rev too "Mac focused"?
>
> Trevor DeVore wrote:
>> I agree with Ken on this.  I would like to see support for calling Win
>> APIs, DLLs and ActiveX.  Even though one of the major features of Rev 
>> is
>> the ability to develop for multiple platforms there are jobs where
>> catering to a specific platform is required.
>
> Trevor,
> Unlike most of us on this list, you are already an accomplished C
> programmer. In fact, you have successfully written a couple VERY NICE
> externals for RR!
>
> Now, I wonder, how many others on this list would take the time to 
> learn
> the correct C interfaces to the WinAPI (I'm sure Ken would!). As 
> feature
> requests are made, the RR team has to factor how many users would
> benefit from them.
>
> Also, as you recall at the Rev Summit in CA, Chris Bohnert demonstrated
> how easy it is to create an external for RR. One which can call a
> Win32API if needed. So, it seems to me, an interim step would be a
> really good primer for creating externals for RR. 'Cause even with a
> WinAPI interface embedded in the language, users will still need to
> learn a lot to be able to use it.

I, for one, would learn the C interfaces to whatever API I need to use, 
which in my current situation would be OS X. I have written a lot of C 
on a lot of platforms. I wrote a bunch of custom XCMDs for HC (in 
MPW!), most of which (if not all) would be unnecessary in RR. I do need 
to know that I will be able to write OS X externals using XCode. 
Chris's demonstration at the Summit was excellent, and it will be easy, 
I hope. When I asked where all the required pearls of wisdom are 
documented, several heads turned to another of the participants with 
question marks for eyes... his response was something like I dunno, I 
sent it all to Kevin.

Right on, Chipp. I need to see a really good primer. I'll settle for 
even a bad one...

Cheer,
Jerry Jensen