Hi, I'm a complete newbie to Revolution...and I have dozens of questions that I was hoping the list might help me answer. I'll try not to overwhelm you kind folks by asking them all at once...;)
I work in a corporate media division with 34 full-time developers. We primarily use a proprietary cross-platform (and code-intensive) tool for authoring, although if we have a WIN-only project we frequently use GLPRO. We also have a few token Director and Apple Media Tool users. We have zero experience with SuperCard, Hypercard, *Card, etc. We are interested in purchasing all of our developers another tool to ease developing chores. Just a little background to tell you where I'm coming from... The Questions, Part I: 1. How are animations implemented in Revolution? I read that it doesn't have a sprite engine, yet uses sprites? Also, what - if any - 3D capabilities does Revolution offer? 2. I'm not entirely clear on the concept of "externals" in regards to Revolution...Is an "external" a DLL- type architecture (bolt-on) or an integrated, plug-in type architecture? Maintaining a single, double-clickable distribution file is very important to us. Is it possible to add a database to Rev (as an "external") and still maintain the single, double-clickable executable for distribution? 3. Is it possible to have embedded, anti-aliased fonts using platform-specific compilations (so that you don't have to guess what fonts are on the end-user's computer and worry about font spacing?) 4. What image and sound formats are utilized natively by Revolution? 5. I saw a couple of people mention iShell, which we are also examining. Can anyone offer insights as to how iShell and Revolution compare on different features, stability, speed of development, etc.? (I realize that some of the best functionality with iShell requires 3rd party plug-ins. We are limited in budget to around US$2K/year per developer, and are aware of the companies pricing structures.) Many, many thanks for your input. - David
