U3 apps and rev

[Richard Gaskin]

Dan Shafer wrote:
> Clearly U3 is a marketing opportunity (if it's even that) and not a
> technology opportunity. U3 is just another target platform for which you can
> choose to compile your Rev apps. If there's anyone on this list who can be
> characterized as paranoid and vigilant about RR losing its xplat focus, I
> suspect that'd be me. And I'm not troubled by this move. Windows is
> proprietary. So is OS X.
> 
> If you think a product you're offering is a great candidate for the U3
> platform, you compile for it and deliver it. The fact that you use the Rev
> compiler reduces the qualification period for your app from weeks to hours.
> If you don't see U3 as a viable platform for your app, just don't check the
> box. No harm, no foul.

I think Dan's comments bear repeating -- thanks for posting that, Dan.

 From time to time RunRev adds support for OS-specific technologies to 
the engine, and those are generally regarded as good things.  Like 
support for the Windows Registry, OS X Drawers, AppleScript, and others, 
U3 support is just one more option we can choose to use or not as our 
clients' needs warrant.

Personally, as long as Apple's HIG continues to recommend disclosure 
triangles I don't ever see myself using drawers, since I can get the 
same benefit in a cross-platform manner with disclosure triangles.  But 
I agree with RunRev's decision to support drawers for those who want them.

I see the same thing here with U3.  It's a fun use of a Windows-specific 
feature (the autorun.inf file), and in more recent implementations 
they've added other goodies like device removal notification.  As long 
as those are available for us to use easily I see no harm, and certainly 
some benefit.

> And FWIW, I'm as confused about any other reason you'd adopt U3 as a
> platform as everyone else here.

U3 can be a valuable "also" for deploying portable apps.  The spec is 
supported by SanDisk and other major manufacturers, so if you're already 
interested in making apps for portable devices RunRev now makes it as 
easy to include U3 in your deployment mix as any other USB device.

Unfortunately the U3 group currently implements U3 support for 
applications in a way that makes it exclusive to their devices; that is, 
your U3-compliant app won't run from a non-U3 device, and non-U3 apps 
are not easily added to the U3 Launchpad.

But now that RunRev has made it trivial to support U3, you can make a U3 
version of your apps and a more generic portable "U4" version for 
everything else.  Given the exclusive nature of U3 this wasn't possible 
before RunRev's initiative, but now it's been made easy.

And whether your apps support U3, a more generic "U4", or both, the 
marketing muscle behind U3 has helped legitimize the concept of running 
self-contained apps from a portable device, which has helped increase 
demand for all flash drives, lowering consumer costs and increasing the 
variety of devices to choose from.  Since Rev has always made it easy to 
deliver self-contained apps, this growing market awareness can only be a 
good thing which especially favors us Rev developers.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
  _______________________________________________________
  Rev tips, tutorials and more: http://www.revJournal.com