Andy's comments and positioning...

[Marty Billingsley]

erik hansen <erikhans08 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Kevin Miller <kevin at runrev.com> wrote:
>
> > Essentially what we are going to be doing more
> > and more over the next few
> > versions is to differentiate Express from
> > Revolution.  So we have two
> > product lines: "Revolution" which contains
> > Studio and Enterprise aimed at
> > professional developers; and Express which is
> > aimed at the entry-level.  We
> > have a number of ideas about how to best manage
> > this differentiation in
> > terms of feature sets, pricing, promotion and
> > support.  We'll be introducing
> > this over time - still preserving options for
> > the existing user base, but
> > more clearly differentiating where new users
> > join the Revolution.
>
> for school labs, a version that is affordable
> but allows students into the development
> environment would be a great way to
> promote programming skills.

What is the difference between Studio, Enterprise,
and Express?  What is the definition of the "development
environment" that Erik refers to?  As a teacher using RunRev
in the classroom with middle school and high school students
I might be able to give you an idea what students (and
teachers) need.

I shy away from environments that are too easy, where
too much is automated.  That's why I stuck with HyperCard
for several years when many other teachers turned to
HyperStudio: I was able to teach fundamental programming
concepts with HC, which are buried too deep behind a simple
user interface in HyperStudio.

That said, the RR user interface isn't as friendly toward
students as it could be, but we're coping. :-)

I hope that a powerful RunRev will be affordable for the
classroom.

   - marty

--
Marty Billingsley (marty at ucls.uchicago.edu)
The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

    "We are our choices...."
                   - Sartre