What's The Verdict, Web or Not?

James Spencer jspencer78 at mac.com
Sun Jul 2 22:58:00 EDT 2006


On Jul 2, 2006, at 9:22 PM, GregSmith wrote:

> Though I've only been reading this forum for a short time, I've now  
> got the
> definite impression that the Revolution environment is for  
> developers  -
> hard core developers . . .   well, programmers  -  hard core  
> programmers . .
> .   not weak, infantile users like myself, who could never program  
> their way
> out of a paper sack.  O.K., I was profoundly mistaken in thinking  
> there was
> any validity to creating simple, in-browser content made with  
> Revolution.
> It is obviously a much more sophisticated tool intended for a much  
> more
> sophisticated audience.

I think you may have gotten the wrong impression; Revolution, while  
not HyperCard, is, IMHO, very usable by reasonably competent users as  
well as by "hard core programmers" to make what it was intended for,  
desktop software.  I have no doubt that you could create a useful Rev  
stack in a short time if you decided you wanted to even if you have  
never written a program before.  There is no doubt that Rev is a  
powerful environment that can and is used by sophisticated "hard core  
programmers" to create sophisticated software but that doesn't make  
it unusable by us lesser mortals.

However, Rev is not software for rendering "in-browser content."   
That's not what it's intended for.  It might be very cool if someday  
someone created a browser plugin to render Rev window content in a  
browser but the fact that it is not available today does not mean  
that it is only intended for a "much more sophisticated audience."   
Nor does the fact that its programming language can be used by  
relatively sophisticated users for scripting CGI's mean that it's  
suitable for rendering html whether by hard core programmers or by  
weak, infantile users (although anyone who really is a weak,  
infantile user would be unlikely to have ever found there way here in  
the first place.)

In concluding that because Rev is not a good tool for creating  
simple, in-browser content and therefore it is only for hard core  
programmers, you are comparing apples and oranges.  Such a conclusion  
makes no more sense that complaining than would condemning Word  
because it can't be used to do photoediting; there are lots of  
reasons to complain about Word but that would not be one of them.

Spence

James P. Spencer
Rochester, MN

jspencer78 at mac.com

"Badges??  We don't need no stinkin badges!"




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