On Friday, May 30, 2003, at 09:58 PM, Judy Perry wrote:
And, where exactly would the inspiration for Revolution have come from were it not for that 'failed' product used by perhaps hundreds of thousands of people or more for more than a decade?
and STILL use every working day and all day long. I for one, will be thrilled on the day I can get RunRev to do as easily all of the things I now do with Hypercard and Nine to Five Reports. Because only then will I have the luxury of the extra time available to get into the all of the great ADDITIONAL features contained in Revolution. I have no doubt that they are present, but the current state of the documentation makes them very difficult (for me at least) to access and understand.
In the extensive discussions regarding Nine to Five Reports I haven't noticed the mention of one incredibly important feature - that it came with a truly amazing online manual numbering some 1700+ pages which not only provided detailed explanations use and scripting examples of all of the special functions they had implement in their related products (Reports, Index, & Letters) but full documentation on Hypercard itself and extensive discussion on scripting, AddColor and lot of other stuff. This compendium was written by L. Michael Post and Michael Long and is a brilliant example of what comprehensive documentation can and should be - one I use to this very day.
I cheerfully purchased the printed RunRev documentation hoping and NEEDING to find something similar. Unfortunately (and incredibly) the two volume Transcript dictionary doesn't even have an index. And I was and remain far less cheerful about the RunRev documentation.
I REALLY want and need to learn how to make RunRev do the things I now do with Hypercard and Nine to Five Reports because one day I will buy a new Mac which won't run HC and Reports under any circumstance and I'll be reduced to scrounging for old system 9 machines to run my business.
A truly great product such as RunRev deserves and will require truly great documentation, rich with examples, if it is ever to gain widespread acceptance.
As to RunRev's Hypercard roots, I would venture to guess that if our friends in Scotland were able to sell licenses to all those who are STILL using Hypercard today (as a start) their accountant would be a happy camper. As Stephen Barncard said, Hypercard had a "huge user base that was fairly invisible because they solved their own problems."
Alan
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