Team Development using Run Rev

[Ben Rubinstein]

On 29/2/08 15:50, Joe Lewis Wilkins wrote:
> Let's face it guys, anytime you have more than one "brain" working on 
> anything, the process is problematic. Even such tools as Apple's MPW, 
> developed specifically for team operations, was not easily groked by 
> most (IMHO). To expect that it would be any different  with Rev is 
> pretty much a pipe-dream. To even think about it, much less try to do 
> it, may prove to be foolish what with all of the caveats.

I don't disagree, but it's much easier with some environments than others. 
The nature of Rev development makes it harder than eg .NET development, or 
typical LAMP development, or I guess a more direct comparison, Flex development.

We have many much larger and more complex projects in the studio here on which 
many people collaborate on the development, with much less hassle than is 
experienced when collaborating on the small number of relatively simple Rev 
projects.  Strict use of source of source code control and adherence to a 
simple set of conventions is enough to avoid any major issues with those 
development environments.

That just isn't the case with Rev, because of the fact that code is 
distributed in many places, interface elements are defined in object 
properties not in anything that is recognisable as 'code', and all these 
pieces of scripts and object properties are bound up together with assets in a 
single binary file with an opaque file structure.

I don't think that's a fault as such; it's the consequence of some of the same 
things about Rev that make it wonderful, and wonderfully productive, in other 
ways.

But it would be idle to pretend that there isn't a difference between 
development environments in this respect, and that Rev poses more difficulties 
than some others.  I don't think that's a reason not to use Rev; but there are 
tradeoffs, and it's one of the factors that I'd weigh in choosing the platform 
on which to develop a new project.

Given that, in many cases I will find the advantages of Rev more compelling 
that the disadvantages including that one; so it's worth considering what can 
be done to alleviate these difficulties.

- Ben