Recently, on Mon, 17 Nov, Richard Gaskin wrote (replying to Eric Engle
in thread MetaCard/Revolution Evangelism):
I don't think it steps on anyone's toes so long as you mke it clear
that the
MC IDE is unsupported.
Richard Gaskin
This statement contains some truth, but needs to be qualified in order
not to be misunderstood.
I will try to list some details about the nature of the support of
Metacard and hope to avoid too much mingling of facts and hopes. Please,
correct me, if I am wrong with regard to certain points or omit
essential aspects.
1. RR (Runtime Revolution) has guaranteed that the Metacard IDE will
continue:
Kevin Miller, Thu, 14 Aug 2003:
This is in writing; Rev has stated that publicly that they will
continue
to allow the MC IDE to continue to work with the new Rev engine.
Yes. And I'll state it again here in case there is any confusion.
2. Metacard - even for new users - is available from the Metacard
website www.metacard.com and from other sources.
3. Metacard users can continue to use their current licenses and renew
them through RR
4. You can get new Metacard licenses if you purchase a Revolution
version. Just specify you want an extra Metacard license key.
5. The Metacard engine can be updated by substituting mc.exe or Metacard
(on MacOS) with the newest version of the Metacard/Revolution engine,
i.e. by renaming Revolution.exe to mc.exe and a similar, but slightly
more complex change of the MacOS version.
Kevin Miller, Thu, 14 Aug 2003:
it's the *same engine*, just
given a new name. When they add features to it for the benefit of Rev
users, MC users who wish to continue with the MC IDE can just drop in
the new engine and go.
Right. So this acquisition means we can, over a period of time, gradually
integrate the various language extensions that Revolution has got, and
make
that available to people who are still using MetaCard. Thus, you can look
forward to database access, text to speech, XML, and all the other stuff
getting integrated neatly into the language.
6. From the above quote you see that RR intends to enhance Metacard with
these features.
7. Metacard will be still supported - as I read it - maybe indirectly
by Scott Raney.
Kevin Miller, Thu, 14 Aug 2003:
The
only difference is that Scott now has *substantially* more time to do
development, as our marketing and technical support *team* are able to
handle those aspects and leave our engineers free to do what they do best.
Scott is a super-programmer, and now he has a lot more time to do just
that.
8. Metacard is being actively supported by a group of interested members
of the Metacard mailing list.
9. Members of this Metacard user group have developed a number of
applications that could be integrated via a plugin menu item or as
directly accessible form the Metacard MenuBar.
10. Metacard is supported by Richard Gaskin, the chosen foreman and
coordinator of the Metacard user group.---
It is indeed a happy coincidence that Richard Gaskin, the foreman of our
Metacard user group, has been promoted to the rank of an illustrious
Revolutionary (see Heather William's post of Nov 27th, subject Seminar).
As it were, Richard epitomizes the new modern Metacard user that
wishes Metacard to continue for various reasons and at the same time is
interested in and contributes to the necessary further development of
Revolution.
This dual enrollment (one of the most promising features in the
American educational system connected to advanced-placement classes -
the AP class probably being the Metacard/Revolution project in a broader
sense) as an illustrious Revolutionary *and* the chairman of the
Metacard support group at the same time provides a optimistic
perspective for the continuation and development of Metacard.
As a member of the inner circles of Revolution and Metacard he is in a
favorable position to communicate with the new owners of Metacard and
convey the potential of Metacard even for the improvement of Revolution
and to also encourage the RR team to discuss openly current and urgent
problems of Revolution - about which they seem at present rather
reluctant to give feedback (like about the serious problems of the Rev
Distribution Builder and the very slow speed of the Revolution IDE when
working with stacks that contain greater number of controls- problems
that do not exist in the Metacard IDE.).
Kevin Miller - in his already quoted post of 14 Aug 2003 - has
encouraged feedback himself when he said:
If you switch over and provide feedback, tools and resources
for Rev, Revolution gets better faster, we are more successful, and
everyone
gets a better tool as a result of our being able to upgrade it faster
- even
people who only use the engine and little of the UI.
Such feedback would be optimal when the communication is bi-directional.
Regards,
Wilhelm Sanke
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