Is RR too easy? Or too hard? (was) Is RunRev marketed to developers mainly?

[Richmond Mathewson]

Too easy? Too difficult?

This is one of those things that can go on and on.

Having ploughed through all those disgusting
command-line languages of the 70s and 80s I really
don't care if people want to be "all funny" about
Runtime Revolution; let them be; all I do know is:

I can have a child of 8 making a "program" (the "s are
there for the 'purists'/'snobs'/whatever) inside of
120 minutes [and, parenthetically,I do owe an apology
with regard to certain sarcastic remarks made earlier
this year about claims as to how rapidly one could
write a program in RR]],

and within a day have them producing a functioning
model of a pocket calculator.

This serves a number of purposes:

1. It gets them off the incredibly destructive view
propagated by Bulgarian schools that "computer
programming" consists of writing MSWord documents,
checking your e-mail and "mucking around with" Excel
documents.

2. Empowers those kids no end: You should see their
faces!

3. Teaches them certain aspects of abstract thinking
quite a few years before the psychologists say kids
can manage it.

4. Stimulates their sense of curiosity about the world
which our common culture and education systems work so
hard to stultify and dumb-down.

All 4 of which have to be good.

Further to that:

One's system development cycle does not have to be a
long, drawn out process; one can often go from idea to
initial prototype in a matter of hours.

While it might take quite a while to get the hang of
all the capabilities of Runtime Revolution (after 6
years I would like to think I am familiar with about
50% of them), one can do great things in a remarkably
short time.

As a point of comparison I would like to mention
something I "went through" (as in a personal period of
suffering) about 4 years ago:

As part of an M.Sc in Computing and IT I had to attend
classes in Visual Basic 5; which, quite remarkably,
told me nothing I had not learnt when studying BASIC 5
in 1976 (!!!!!!!!). After doing the fairly goofy
exercises in the lab at the institution I would drive
home and, just for fun (well, and a way of coping with
the trauma) I would duplicate each exercise in
Revolution. 

Every time I did this the time spent on duplicating
the exercise in RR took 20-25% of the time to do it in
VB 5 (and, I am not counting the pretty flow-charts,
games with yoghurt pots of buttons and so forth that
came before I went near any computer).

Also, with RR I could see what was happening as I did
things; which was not the case with VB 5. Put some of
my prejudice down to the fact that I do not like
Windows 2000, and to the fact that the lecturer in the
practical sessions kept shouting at me because I was
using a slide-rule rather than a pocket calculator
(made her feel insecure ????), and that she had no
manners; but not all of it.

Now I know that in some would-be 'elitest' groups the
word VISUAL is viewed as obscene, However, I love the
word VISUAL, because as a human being I receive 80% of
my sense-data through my eyes, and because I had about
15 years of horrid black screens with either black or
green letters.

Visual Basic 5 (and I cannot comment for 6 or NET) was
neither one thing or the other (i.e. VISUAL or a
command line language); frankly I would far rather
have old-fashioned BASIC (well,maybe after the
requirement for the LET statement was dropped).

Now Runtime Revolution is VISUAL;  I use Runtime
Revolution for the very reason that it is:

VISUAL,

like LEGO, (which was a great help when I hired an
architect who started waving 2-dimensional plans at
me),

KIDS and CLIENTS can see what is being done (not much
good if you want to cultivate the image of some
magician with mystical powers over the computer) while
it is being done: nothing like talking through a
problem with a client/pupil and doing some RR
on-screen at the same time so that by the end of your
chat you actually have something half-decent you can
show them!

Runtime Revolution is absolutely bl**dy marvellous; I
don't know why they seem to be hiding their light
under a bushel.

At the moment high schools in Bulgaria teach PASCAL;
which is plain daft, and, 90% of the kids hate it, get
turned-off computer programming, see absolutely no
connexion between it and the PCs they have in the
living-room at home, cannot understand any connexion
between what they are supposed to do (with PASCAL) and
the programs they use on their home PCs, and gain very
little in terms of cognitive benefit. Much the same
elsewhere I think.

I am convinced that Runtime Revolution could be widely
adopted as the marvellous educational tool it is.

sincerely, Richmond Mathewson.

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A Thorn in the flesh is better than a failed Systems Development Life Cycle.
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