Duration of non supported applications

[Bill Marriott]

David,

> 1) Redevelop the software using standard web technology for which there 
> are
> many developers available.
> 2) Buy a commercial package
> 3) Adopt a mixed open source strategy

Unfortunately I cannot agree with you on *ANY* of these recommendations.

There's no guarantee (and I would argue, little potential) that these paths 
are going to ensure better long-term survivability than a Rev-based 
application that is running just fine on Windows Vista and Mac OS X today.

Regarding #1)

- So-called "standard web technology" is a moving target, faster-moving even 
than operating systems.
- It's a lot of development work and testing to get something approaching 
interactive multimedia on all major browser platforms today.
- When you do so, you're still relying on underlying multimedia libraries
- Revolution out-of-the-box provides superior capabilities for the end-user 
experience.

Regarding #2)

- There's very likely no such animal as an existing off-the-shelf product 
that does exactly what the existing solution does.
- Shoe-horning the solution into a product that might be "close enough" is 
simply trading one set of problems for another.
- Commercial products ain't free

Regarding #3)
- This is typical pie-in-the-sky "open source solves everything" wishful 
thinking and hand-waving
- Most of the issues that pertain to #2 and #3 apply here
- Anyone who's worked with open source knows it has its own bugs, issues and 
traps

Now, at BEST what you are saying is that you should spend significant 
time/effort/money NOW to solve a problem that may not occur for several 
years, if at all. Why? For all we know, the solution works fine as-is on 
current operating systems. If for some reason it doesn't (I suppose Vista is 
the most vulnerable) then, just grab Revolution 2.8 and re-save the 
standalone. Voila, you've just added 5 to 10 years of compatibility.

At WORST you are saying you should throw out perfectly good work for dubious 
returns with little guarantee that the end result will have the same 
functions and user experience... "just because."

Vista just came out "yesterday" and Intel-based Macs are not that much 
older. Do you really think a new generation of operating systems is going to 
be released imminently -- OSes that will somehow by default and unavoidably 
break hundreds of existing applications? And that large organizations are 
going to adopt that new paradigm, replace their hardware, and sacrifice 
their software infrastructure ... overnight?

Now a meta-comment:

If you really believe this, why the heck are you using Rev at all? These 
arguments could be used against any desktop application built with Rev, and 
undermine anyone trying to sell software based on the Rev platform.

For what it's worth, when I was testing Windows Vista I ran a standalone I 
created in July 2003 with Rev without recompiling. It worked just great. Of 
course I wasn't doing tricky stuff like registry edits but then again, how 
many standalones do that, and what is the chance an educational solution 
does so?

The truth is, Rev is the one development platform that "just works" across a 
vast array of operating systems and versions. You can run it on Windows 98. 
You can run it on Mac OS X 10.4.9. Yeah, I know there are glitches here and 
there, and you have to use 2.6.1 for Linux and Mac Classic (that will 
change). But understand that it DOES work and is remarkably robust. I'm not 
sure if MetaCard was available in 1997, but for all intents and purposes, 
those stacks still work fine a DECADE later, on both Windows 98 and Vista.

As for "resources" there are thousands of users of Rev, more each day, and 
I'm sure any of them would appreciate a referral for consulting should that 
dark day arrive when the apps finally, really do have to be updated or 
replaced. THAT is the time to worry about putting the train on different 
tracks... not today. (The Aztecs seem to think it's all over in 2012. 
Whatever comes first -- Rev apps breaking or the end of the world.)

I think for all practical purposes the answer to the original poster is: 
Find a Vista machine and try your stuff out. If for some reason it doesn't 
work, try re-building the standalone with Rev 2.8. It will undoubtedly work 
great and continue to do so for the forseeable future.

I'f I'm somehow misunderstanding you, please help clarify.

- Bill