Kevin....
I concur heartily with all that Alex said about RR and Python. I would add only two more thoughts.
First, until PythonCard (an OpenSource project to which I have been an on-and-off contributor and whose founder is a good friend) is mature, there really isn't a good direct-manipulation graphical IDE for Python. This makes building apps far too time-consuming if they need sophisticated cross-platform UIs, as all apps I build require. My guess is that PythonCard is at best a year from ready for prime time.
Second, as a programming language Python is unexcelled. If I could use RunRev to create the UI and Python as a scripting language, I'd be in hog heaven. As much as I love Transcript -- and I really do -- Python runs circles around it linguistically FOR SOMEONE LIKE ME who is steeped in object-oriented design, analysis, programming, and thought. Please don't take that to mean I think Python is purely and always better than Transcript. As I said, I love Transcript.
As an aside, I've been thinking for some time in sort of deep background mode about figuring out how to make RunRev UIs into a graphical layer that calls Python scripts so I could have the best of both worlds. I'm not yet steeped enough in how that would work beyond some very simple ability to execute a Python script via the shell() function, but it remains one of those projects I hope I get to someday but would be delighted if someone beat me to doing!
On Aug 11, 2004, at 3:36 AM, Alex Tweedly wrote:
3. How does Rev compare specifically to other scripting languages,
especially Tcl/Tk and Python/wxPython? I'm studying Tcl/Tk out of a
slightly contrarian nature, as I know the GUI's that can be built with
Tk are more limited; wxPython, by contrast, is very rich. Can anyone
with experience with either of these development environments offer some
insight about how they compare to Rev?
I'd skip Tcl/Tk - it's very limited compared to the other two, and just not fun.
Python/wxPython (and Pythoncard) has a lot of strengths compared to RR, and just about as many weaknesses :-)
RR can do almost anything - but it excels in some areas while it "can do" others. I see RR as particularly strong in text handling, imaging, sound, multimedia (other on the list might disagree because they are experienced in other tools in that area, where I'm not).
P/wxP is strong in text handling, simple graphics, Internet protocols. It has strong "traditional" data structuring features - which I think help to make programs in it maintainable.
wxP has a richer set of tools (e.g. wxGrid is about 3 generations better than RR's table control), but RR has unequalled ability to put them together to get what you want.
I have to say I'm an enthusiastic user of both, so I'm biased :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dan Shafer, Revolutionary Author of "Revolution: Software at the Speed of Thought" http://www.revolutionpros.com for more info Available at Runtime Revolution Store (http://www.runrev.com/RevPress)
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