Thanks Bernard. I was away for a while and came back to quite a shock. After having read through such a mess of negative emails, it was great to end up with yours.
Regards, Sarah On 11/8/06, Bernard Devlin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I don't know what is the cause of so much negativity on the list. Sometimes those things just spiral by accident. Anyway, I just want to point out how things look to me - a long time lurker, and sometime user of Revolution. I follow the list daily, but rarely have the time to contribute much (I'm always trying to do more than I'm really capable of doing!) The people on this list are some of the most helpful and good-natured people on any list that I follow (and I get 200+ emails a day from various lists). I first looked at Metacard a few years before Revolution existed, and I thought it was a toy, and an overpriced toy at that. More fool me - I couldn't see passed the (beautiful) simplicity of the concept, and was just focusing on the simplicty of the marketing. RunRev have marketed Rev more effectively, and the IDE and documentation showed me what I couldn't see by myself when I'd looked at Metacard. Furthermore, they opened up pricing options (Studio, Dreamcard, Media) that make it far more feasible for many people to adopt it as a development platform. If things had remained as they were (Metacard was approx $1000), I would never have adopted it as one of my tools, and would not have recommended it to others. But Runrev also added lots of database access features (ODBC, MySql, Valentina, PostgreSQL, Oracle). They added xml support. They added improved look and feel on many platforms. They responded to repeated complaints about accessibility. They changed the documentation to make it more accessible; and they structured it as XML, making it easier for others to build different interfaces into the docs (as I myself have done). They added video and PDF tutorials. People nagged for a forum - others said they preferred the list... RunRev obliged and provided both. There are benefits to both - I would like to see the forum being used in a more structured way to keep permanent searchable records of useful code, tips and gotchas. There were complaints about the externals interface - they had that re-written in an attempt to improve it (I don't believe I'm adept enough to judge if it is better or not). People wanted SSL, that was provided. The scripting conferences were a great idea (and driven by Jacques). The RevCons are also fantastic (even though I have trouble attending them). Making the videos available on DVD for so little money is unbelievable. In fact, the current offer (along with a studio update pack) was just too good to pass by. I don't personally see the benefit of the U3 stuff or the new zip features, but that's not to say that others don't find these features useful. I'm sure there are loads of other things that have been added that I'm forgetting. I would love it if others could add on the improvements they consider notable too. Even though they might have changed the purchase/updates options in a way that I might think is off-putting for new users, I have always found (since my first purchase 4 years ago) that the options available to me when it comes to upgrade/renewal are very reasonable. In fact, in my experience they have bent over backwards to offer me enticing upgrade paths, and always without me asking for any special concession. I have no hesitation in recommending Rev to anyone who wants to pick up programming. I don't think Rev is suitable for every programming area, but I am often amazed at what I see being done by users of this list. But it seems that the users of this list often have quite a diversity in the ways in which they want to see Rev improve. Obviously, it is going to be hard for the tool to be all things to all women. But at least with bugzilla being open and votable, and both bugs and improvements going into that, Runrev are open to influence by us users in ways that many other tools are not open. And finally, there is always the option of being an 'enterprise' user and joining the improve list. I think that laying out that kind of dosh is a good indication of one's commitment to the product and way of weeding out noise. If things go according to plan with my current development, I will be happy to step up and join that group if it means I can support and have some direction on the tool that is still in a league of its own. In the light of all the things that they've done to enhance the tool, market it, provide pricing options, provide documentation and tutorial options, and discussion options, it doesn't surprise me that some bugs may have gone unresolved for longer than people might hope. I still think they are doing a great job, and provide very good value and service. Bernard Devlin _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
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