Questions about 2.0

[Igor de Oliveira Couto]

Dear Rev Masters,

I am at a stage in my development process which is quite frustrating. There are far too many decisions that have to be made, which are dependent on the possible feature set of Rev 2.0 - which remain as yet unannounced... For instance:

1) Will there be any enhancements in the way that Revolution deals with LAYERING of objects and groups? Will we be able to 'send backward' and 'bring forward' inside a group?

While this might seem like a small question, it has HUGE consequences in my application design. It means designing the entire application to function one way or another, and interface with the user using a single window, or a window and a series of palettes.

2) What are going to be the capabilities of the new 'spreadsheet' control? More precisely:

a) Will we be able to access the data on a specified range automatically (ie, "get from row 8, col 2 to row 40, col 3"?)

b) Will we be able to put any data other than strings inside cells? - ie, images, graphics?

c) Will the appearance of the spreadsheet be customisable, and if so, to what extent? - will I be able to assign custom column/row labels, will I be able to colour the background of specific cells, will I be able to hide/show divider lines ?

Depending on the answers to these questions, I will have to either redefine the specs of my applications, redesign its functionality and/or redesign the user interface.

3) Will there be any changes to the list of built-in functions?

My applications needs to use a variety of statistical and mathematical functions, some of which Rev 1.1.1 already has - and is quite speedy at! There are, however, a few that I will need that Revolution currently does not have. For instance, even though Revolutions has a function for calculating the MEDIAN, it does not have a function for calculating the QUARTILES - which are needed for drawing Box Plots. Should I start implementing all required functions, or will there be new functions in Rev 2.0?

4) To what extent will the text-entry capabilities be enhanced?

We know that Revolution 2.0 will be capable of handling Unicode text natively, but does that mean that it will be able to write right-to-left and up-down as well? Will there be any text entry functionality that will make it easier for me to implement MATHEMATICAL EQUATION EDITING? - right now, I'm starting on the development of a very time-consuming sub-app that I will need to have for mathematical formula editing...

5) Will there be a new mechanism for automatically resizing interface objects?

Frankly, the Geometry Manager simply does not work. It's unusable if the application contains multiple cards, and each card contains multiple groups inside groups. Others in this list have mentioned that they've hard-coded the required resizing onto every object, in order to guarantee that it functions properly. I have a GREAT suspicion that this would have to have been fixed by version 2.0, but there is no mention whatsoever of this anywhere. If this hasn't been dealt with, then I have to start hard-coding this RIGHT AWAY, before my application gets any more complex!

6) Will there be any changes in the graphing/drawing capabilities of Revolution?

I am writing an application with graphing capabilities, and I want my users to be able to have options such as: to be able to use GRADIENTS in their bars and backgrounds, feathered drop shadows, and bar-pictures (a custom bar/column picture that repeats a single row of pixels until the picture is 'to scale'). Will any of these features be available in Revolution 2.0, or should I start spending some time right away defining these functions?

I have been patiently waiting for Rev 2.0, and using that time as constructively as possible. I have been trying to advance the design and implementation of my apps as much as possible, taking into consideration the impending release of 2.0. I would have loved to be able to purchase a Professional Edition, and to have been included in the alpha/beta testing program, however, finances are prohibitive - I am a student - and some of these projects I am developing on a voluntary basis for free distribution by non-profit organisations. I am currently on holidays, and therefore had planned to program full-time until the- end of February. The delay on the release of even a beta of 2.0 has been quite disappointing, and has put a SERIOUS delay on all projects...

I have very limited time to take my projects to completion, and the idea of sitting around twiddling my thumbs for 2 weeks, while I could be doing something useful and constructive, is truly torturous. Please, feed us some more detailed info on the 2.0 release, so we can continue our work with Rev 1.1.1 in the most constructive manner possible!

And, please, keep up the good work! Revolution is a great development environment!

Kindest Regards,

--
Igor de Oliveira Couto
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