Well, since I'm so verbal about what frustrates me about a program, I thought I'd take the time to post some GOOD thoughts and a wish list.
I tried using with extensions off and while it (Rev) still bugged out a few times, it wasn't anything near as bad as before. I discovered a control panel and an extension that should not have been running, but appear to have been running in the background. While it is not viable to run with all extensions off, especially as I need them for the graphics and sound programs that I use extensively during programming, I did turn these two off and it seems to be better. One was Norton Filesaver, even though I had it set only to run at shutdown. Many force-quits of Revolution brought up the force-quit Filesaver dialog. And it was a "huh?" moment. The other was an extension related to my scanner, even though my scanner isn't even turned ON unless I use it, which is only once in awhile. So I'm trying it again with these two items off, and see how it goes. Features I like about Revolution: I like the way it separates what works in each platform, so that you can see right off if something you want to do will be supported if you compile for multiple platforms. I like the way it tells you the minute you hit the APPLY button if a script is too long. I like the way it seems to give fairly detailed data on why a script isn't working. The how-to stuff is so much more detailed than Metacard's, a very good thing (Metacard's how-to is terrible!) I like that it doesn't automatically show a Home stack, and then shut down half the menus when you close that stack like Metacard does. I was always accidentally clicking the Demo button of the Home stack of Metacard and launching that Demo. Very frustrating, until I figured out how to go into the Home stack and disable the button. Would have rather just closed the stack, not had it be showing while I worked. I like the multi-line message box. I like the native built in color (coming from Hypercard :-) There are many built-in functions and messages that I've only begun to get an inkling of, that are very nice. That it supports "repeat until the mouseClick"... (I'm back to using Rev over Metacard just for this one thing, that I never could find a workaround for in Metacard... I could workaround one repeat structure, but as my handlers call others that call others and a handler three deep makes another call of this kind, the Metacard workarounds did not work for me). Wish list: The "Find" feature to find handlers in scripts is very good, though I do wish it also had a function like Hypercard to search scripts and GO TO that place automatically. Often I want to replace *most* of some word with another word, but not *all* instances. I also wish it had a Control Browser like Metacard's, more like a scrolling field than a pulldown button. I often have many object with the same name, and it's easier to pick ONE out from the bunch in a scrolling field. And the ability to sort the controls by name, type, etc. would be nice. And I wish the list would include the ID# of the control. It appears to support Metacard's "intersect" of two items, though it's not in the documentation. Had I not used Metacard first, I wouldn't know about this feature. I do wish there were also a "if not intersect(this button,that image) then". The dissolve visual effect seems to only happen in black and white, rather than dissolving the image on the card. I wish... I wish I had more control of overall Preference type stuff. Like whether help windows open in front of other windows or you have to drag them out. Like always colorizing scripts. I wish there were a window with the active variables and their contents. I wish I could create a totally blank card. Without having to go through all sorts of hoops to do it. I rarely use the same controls from card to card. It would be easier to duplicate a card when you wanted to, but have the default to be a blank card. I wish the Open Recent Stack worked. I wish for support for color cursors. Print All Scripts or Export All Scripts to a text file. Once I created a menu (menubar type menu), now I have to click on the Toolbox or Application Overview to have the full set of development menus. Otherwise, when I'm in the stack, the only menus up there are the ones I created. I wish that weren't so. Once I release it, obviously I want only my menus up there, but during development I want both sets of menus. That your special for Hypercard transplantees didn't end so soon. -- --Shareware Games for the Mac-- http://www.gypsyware.com http://www.gypsygames.com
