Garrett, et al.,
I don't think RunRev will mind us talking about Constellation on the
board as they're selling it now! They were always very good about
that anyway. This post is in direct response to Garret's problems
with finding a development environs where he feels more comfort and
less discomfort (if I may put words in his mouth).
With Constellation, we've tried very hard to come up with an
alternate workflow for Revolution developers, but that's a fairly
subtle thing to communicate in the "buy me now" atmosphere of web
pages and bytes. Dan Shafer's (www.shafermedia.com) love of SmallTalk
browsers and Chipp Walters' (www.altuit.com) frustrations with script
editors in general were two talented and productive voices that urged
me into building Constellation.
Also, back in the early 90's, I built a front end for CompileIt!
called "HPW." I really liked creating an alternate workflow for
CompileIt! users that was more project oriented. What I learned there
was: CompileIt! was perfect for a quick demo and that's what made it
sell. But when the demo was done and the developer used it day after
day, he/she started losing his/her marbles.
Now, well into the 2000's, I'm trying my hand at another alternate
workflow for another great development tool: Revolution. My alternate
workflow for Revolution is now Constellation and its "gadgets." It's
for those people who are done "demoing" Revolution and really want to
work with it.
Creating Constellation has been a learning experience in the extreme.
I was unprepared for the diversity of users and their preferences,
but Constellation users--starting with version 2.10--have been
telling me: "This is the one!"..."You've got it!"...and good stuff
like that. So I'm beginnning to believe we ARE getting it. The early
adopters got a good deal financially and had a strong voice in the
direction of the product.
So, Garrett, here's the big delta between today's Constellation and
last years: choice. You can really choose how you want your
development environment to work.
We now have very flexible and clear editor "states": script-only;
scripts & props; props-only. However, in scripts-only you can make
the handlers disappear with a click. In props only you can make the
preview pane disappear with a single click.
More flex: you can have Constellation "remember" how you like each
and every object and open it that way--if you like. Would you like to
see your properties in folders? Done, with one click. Would you like
to organize your handlers into folders? A few comments in the script
and it's done in one (click).
Trevor DeVore and his company (www.mangomultimedia.com) do GREAT work
in Rev and other environs. He LOVES to use custom properties and
custom property sets. He uses BBEdit to do his scripting--not
Constellation or Revolution IDE. He uses Constellation to edit his
properties and to debug his scripts. Making all that work seamlessly
for him so he and his brother can pull down the bucks to support
their families and deliver great products was a great boost in the
arm for my products.
Scott Rossi (www.tactilemedia.com) has come out with a FANTASTIC
alignment plugin (tmAlign), that makes aligning fields and buttons
into the 21st century. When tmAlign is used with Constellation, it
makes property editing fun, effective and downright holistic. With or
without tmAlign, Constellation lets you can drag a property from one
object to another. Hold down the shift key and the property gets
applied to all the objects (that have that property) being edited in
Constellation.
This is the stuff of alternate workflows. Subtle but dramatic. And
the perfect add-on sale for Revolution, if I may say so.
Constellation can go as far as we can imagine it. Why not give it a
shot?
Best,
Jerry Daniels
Artists, Consultants & Developers
http://www.daniels-mara.com/art
http://www.daniels-mara.com/products
http://www.daniels-mara.com
Voice: 512.879.6286
Skype: jerry.daniels
On Feb 13, 2006, at 4:26 PM, Garrett Hylltun wrote:
On Feb 13, 2006, at 1:17 PM, Alex Tweedly wrote:
Garrett Hylltun wrote:
One other thing. The IDE in Rev kind of throws me off also, but
I believe it's due to myself having Attention Deficit Disorder.
I can easily work in an IDE that is simply and editor with a few
buttons and tools that I can open and close when needed, but
with Rev, the many open windows and lack of a main editor window
where I can access all the code of my project really throws me off.
You might want to look at Constellation.
It's not quite "one big editor window" - but it does feature one
large window with multiple panes for different aspects of an IDE,
and multiple tabbed pages for editing different scripts.
http://www.daniels-mara.com/products/
Yeah, bought that last year also. At the time it made things worse
for me. But I haven't run it again yet, so maybe I should give it
a try again. :-)
In fact, it had thrown me so much that I just gave up on Rev
last month. But a few days I go I decided to give it one last
try. This time I'm getting along much better. Maybe a break
from it allowed me to let the IDE sink in or something.
Oh - I give up on it every other month - but I always come
back :-) :-)
Maybe the trend I'm going to run into also. ;-)
-Garrett
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