ANN: Grapple Released

Sivakatirswami katir at hindu.org
Fri Nov 26 14:22:56 EST 2010


  Namaste: Ton:


First a disclaimer: Grapple is "kid's stuff" compared to what many of 
the LiveCode pros in our community *could* do in terms of file 
management and revision control... and in fact my hope would be that 
publishers try it, like it but want more and then reach out to LiveCode 
Pros. I think there is a huge untapped market for LiveCode software in 
the publishing world and it will be good very everyone if the LiveCode 
brand got a footing in that world.

  If needed I may need to set up a referrals list on that page later to 
point publishesr to all you *real* programmers. So point: Grapple is not 
intended to be anything more. Simple, but limited.

- What about the assets used in the publications?

1) in our environment we have never need to collaborate on Photoshop 
files or illustrator files. Also I needed to keep it simple as I have a 
lot of other "real" work to do (smile) I could have included other file 
types, but that's more work.

That said, we normally keep all the assets for the publication project 
in the same folder on Version Control. Grapple only sees-displays the 
InDesign files on the top level and other file types and sub-folders are 
ignored.

- Why no integration from within InDesign?

2) Well the problem is that LiveCode can run Apples scripts, but you 
cannot drive LiveCode with Apple script... at least I thought not until 
today... Now I see the dictionary contains "Do Script"  Execute 
Revolution Script.. so maybe something could be done if I could run a 
script from InDesign's File menu...but I really don't want to go there.

Well partly it's my philsophy: every time you build a frame were that is 
dependent on an external software component, then this will double or 
triple or quadruple the long term maintenance requirement because every 
time the "other componet" changes something, the framework breaks... 
(you get this big time with Drupal and all his hairy friends) you have 
to drop everything and scramble to get it working again. e.g. MySql's 
infamous and not well publicized connection problems were-are a constant 
headache internally (with Version Cue and PortFolio) It's working now, 
but tomorrow?

Not only am I not competent to integrate it with InDesign (the only 
language I know is LiveCode) but by *not* integrating it with inDesign, 
it will never break when Adobe changes something. While I love these 
fabulous tools, these big companies keep shooting us in the foot. 
(LiveType was recently discontinued, leaving our video team scratching 
their head for titles)

It was also interesting to discover this:, initially our team said "Can 
you make it so we can check in theses files from inside InDesign?"  I 
said "Sorry, No can do... not without a lot of R & D..."

But now, they are feeling this is actually *better*  -- the habit 
pattern becomes, open file, edit the file, close the file, check it 
in... This is a much better scenario in the long run in terms of the 
goal of the whole framework. Even before, with Version Cue, the option 
to check a file in and still leave it open was dangerous at best... 
editors frequently would do this.. then after checking in, get the 
"itch" to tweak the file some more... and then get a phone call or 
interruption... now someone on the team across the room checks the file 
out and goes to work on it.. Editor 1 still has it open... etc.

So, unexpectedly by *not* integrating with InDesign we are seeing our 
editorial conflicts dropping to virtual zero. With Version Cue we 
continued to have regular version conflicts.

- Why Mac only?

3) i) We are a Mac lab, 100% ii) I'm using unix shell commands to do the 
heavy lifting iii) we use an apple script to mount the server 
automatically iv) I parse the ifconfig file (a unix thing) to determine 
the users connectivity status in advance, so no server operations are 
attempted (causing the user to hang because the volume is unreachable)

All that is Mac only and I don't know squat about Windows.  Again, if 
some publishers with windows stations start drooling over grapple, I 
would hope that you cross platform wizards will be called upon to, for a 
fee, to help them with their RCS needs, which may be an entirely 
different solution.

We will see.. this could also be just a dud too.  But we have some real 
interest from real companies in the Bay area... so let's see what happens.


skts




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