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Most likely true - just as the oposite: Why isn't "basename" or "dirname" present, both being substantial functions for everyone who is dealing with files all day? No, don't answer it, it's just an example to show: Everyone has a specific environment he comes from.
Yes, absolutely, and I think your comments show very clearly that you come from a certain environment, a certain linguistic and development context, and one which is highly technical and codified. Sorry after all to ignore your "don't answer it", but I work with files every day and have never needed to use "basename" or "dirname" - this isn't good or bad, it's just a different experience from yours. What is clear from your comments is that unlike many of us you don't need any comfort factors, 'syntactic sugar' to get your programming done, so the English-like feel to xTalk languages is more of a hindrance than a help to you. But Ken Ray is right to say
...Revolution is not targeted at low level programmers, but is more targeted at other 4GL programmers (people who have worked with Visual Basic, Macromedia Director, Flash, etc.) and people who haven't had much programming experience in the past and "just want to get the job done"...
What I think you should be able to appreciate and even get fond of, is the way in which in Transcript, whole quanta of functionality are encapsulated in simple structures, commands and functions and made to work cross-platform. You get a clearer expressed and more rapidly developed result in Transcript (and to a great extent, other xTalks) than you can possibly do in lower-level languages. For many Revolution developers, this makes RunRev the only game in town.
Graham
(BTW in the distant past, I programmed in languages only one step up from binary code, and sometimes did actually debug at the binary level: and every time I've managed to get up a level in the hierarchy of languages, I've felt happier for it).
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Graham Samuel / The Living Fossil Co. / UK & France
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