Richard Gaskin ,14 Nov:
MetaCard no longer exists as a product. The
only engine they can buy is from RunRev and comes with the Rev IDE, which is
a little less daunting to some than the more spartan MC IDE.
You can still get Metacard - in the form of the Starter Kit - from the Metacard site ftp. metacard.com. You will need a Rev + included Metacard license (you have to specify that in your order) to take advantage of the full Metacard version.
So since they need to get the latest engine from RunRev anyway they might as
well learn the Rev IDE and avoid the hoop-jumping needed to run the current
engine with the MC IDE.
The hoop-jumping is very simple for Windows: You just rename "revolution.exe" to "mc.exe" and put the new mc.exe into you Metacard folder.
It certainly does not hurt to have a look at the Rev IDE; it is a product in a medium stage of development, which means that there are quite a number of flaws that need fixing, features that still have to be optimised, many scripts that have to be shortened, and some really annoying bugs that make parts of the IDE practically unusable in certain situations.
What I really like about Revolution is the Transcript Dictionary, which thanks to Richard Gaskin can now be used within the Metacard IDE.
For the current winter semester I again rely on Metacard for my mulimedia workshop and I share MisterX's opinion.
MisterX, 14 Nov 2003:
MC is almost dead BUT, Here it still kicks Butt! What is now mature Does not follow nature
What is today obsolete Of basics is still replete If sight is all, RR is a deal But to mind, MC is a better meal
Richard Gaskin, 14 Nov 2003:
For newcomers, though, I think Rev makes a better starting point.
I am inclined to think otherwise. Students in our workshops - that (as long as there was both a Revolution and Metacard Starter Kit) could choose between the IDEs - overwhelmingly preferred Metacard because of its greater simplicity and stability.
I might add a statement from Judy Perry, made in a different context on Nov 15 (use-revolution list), that fits here:
"Now, one could probably argue that Rev can be highly complex, too. But this is not the face one wishes to present to people who have never been exposed to any sort of programming at all -- they'll run screaming for their PowerPoint software. "
We can all learn a lot from Scott's scripting style.
I assume this hope comprises the members of the Revolution team.
With so many people using the Rev IDE and more newcomers every day, anyone
serious about enriching the productivity of Trancript programmers will at
least consider implementing tools as plug-ins that will also work in Rev; if
you have to go with just one you'll reach more people favoring Rev.
All of my tools can be used with both IDEs and some of them - like my RevBrowser - work better and more reliably than the corresponding parts of the Rev IDE, in case I should do some programming with Revolution..
I add here part of a post I sent on Oct. 10th to [EMAIL PROTECTED] in response to her "research project" of new Revolution users (although I was one the early alpha and beta testers of Revolution - you can find my name when clicking at Help and About Revolution in the Rev MenuBar - I was somehow included in the enquete when I renewed my license):
"The new Revolution IDE will have to be improved a great deal to reach the level of stability and ease of use Metacard had reached over the years. There are many points of critique mentioned on the Revolution and Metacard lists (concerning the number and nature of bugs in the IDE, the complicated structure of the IDE, the slow performance, and perhaps most important that the programming itself is not "streamlined" enough, i.e. that sometimes 1000 lines of code are used to achieve specific goals where 200 would have been enough.).
Of course, most of those that criticize the new development (including the new marketing strategies) wish to maintain and improve an authoring platform that is really outstanding compared to most other authoring systems. In this sense both longtime Metacard users and new users of Revolution most probably have the intention to contribute to the development and improvement of the Metacard and Revolutions IDEs and the basic engine used by both."
Richard Gaskin , Nov 15th:
> What do you mean, locked up tight?
The scripts in the Distribution Builder are encrypted.
> How does Rev's differ?
Rev's Distribution Builder and the MC IDE's Standalone Builder differ in two
significant ways:
- Rev's does much more - MC's is modifiable
What should be added here is a reference to the fact that the present Rev Distribution Builder is intolerably slow in some situations with larger stacks. Build times of more than half an hour for stacks from which you can build standalones with Metacard in 3 seconds! See my earlier post in the thread "Speed differences between the Metacard and Revolution IDEs" a few days ago.
I very much hope that Metacard will be actively supported as a continuing alternative IDE and as an essential part of the Revolution project - both by the Revolution team and Metacard adherents. I think that Richard Gaskin as the chosen chairman of the "Metacard maintenance crew" will see to it that this alternative - that would be beneficial to the whole xtalk community - can be realized.
Regards,
Wilhelm Sanke
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