I too do 'rapid prototyping,' but I'm convinced that with Revolution
I'm very much more productive than I ever was in the other languages
I've used. I'm curious, though, why you don't think Revolution is
appropriate for 'the building' although it will do for 'the plan.'
Frankly, the programs I write in Revolution are just as robust as the
13 published in educational software programs I wrote in languages
varying from Applesoft Basic to Forth to various assembly languages to
C to C++. And I would far rather try to add a feature or fix a bug in
Revolution than in those other languages!
My wife did point out the issue of maintenance, should I not be the
maintainer (at 65, I should have a few years left though). I agree
with you that a programmer speaking another language should be able to
do a conversion pretty easily. But a client's concern about the
possible need to convert is certainly legitimate.
Anyway, I'm happily prototyping in Revolution for a 'real' educational
publisher, and they're happily playing with and learning from my 'not-
ready-for-prime-time' prototypes, so the loss of the occasional client
isn't an issue. And as viktoras observed, Rev's capabilities are
increasing all the time. The advent of a Rev browser plugin will be
particularly important for my work in education!
George
On Dec 22, 2008, at 1:07 PM, Randall Reetz wrote:
I use xtalk IDEs because i do "rapid"(?) prototyping. I dont expect
my projects to be the finished market facing product. On the other
hand, i sure wish there was a way to automatically dump an xtalk
project into java or C or even flash.
Nobody expects an architect to build the building. Nobody would want
an architect to use a back hoe to design a building. The real issue
is efficiency of development. If a person can do way more in an xtalk-
man hour then (in some circumstances) a project can be built that
would otherwise be too expensive to considder. This is the sweetspot
of the xtalk development market. That rev provides cross platform
distribution... That is the great leveler missing in many other rapid
dev. tools.
Because xtalk is so english like, any good C or java programmer can do
a line by line conversion without knowing xtalk itself.
randall
-----Original Message-----
From: "Stephen Barncard" <[email protected]>
To: "How to use Revolution" <[email protected]>
Sent: 12/22/2008 9:29 AM
Subject: Re: OT2: The 'realness' of languages
After I told her I used Revolution for its rapid-development and
cross-platform capabilities, a subtle change occurred in the
conversation.
She began talking about how I might help with the design, but that
of course when the design was finished a software firm would take
over the development (presumably in some 'real' language like C). I
didn't bother to tell her I COULD write in C, Java, PERL, PHP and so
on, because it would be extraordinarily painful to do so.
Why not tell her that then, if you felt you lost anyway? The only
answer to fight the myths is education.
This is similar to the 'loudness wars' in the music business, where
untrained amateur 'mastering' engineers and forced professionals are
making LOUD CDs, even though they know they're trampling the dynamics
and it makes the music worse. Loud CDs use 'hypercompression' - not
data compression but audio compression in the digital realm, which is
at first interesting but eventually tedious to listen to. (think
Ricky Martin and Britany for extremes)
The myth is that these records sound 'better' on the radio, but they
really don't. But the myth really goes back to the vinyl days, that
had limitations: if it was cut too soft it would be enveloped in
noise. On the other hand there was a limit to how much time you could
put on a disc. Louder records were shorter in length, quieter were
longer. That's why Miles Davis's 'In A Silent Way' is so quiet.
Almost an hour playing time!
Has anyone else run into this issue? Do you dodge the 'what is it
written in' question? How can we raise the profile of Revolution as
a 'real' language? (Never mind what religion it might resemble!)
George
--
stephen barncard
s a n f r a n c i s c o
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