Rev 3.0

[TonyL]

Hit the update menu today and to my surprise, Rev 3.0 gm 1 is available for update.

Any beta testers out there care to offer their opinion on 3.0?

I know the script editor has been improved and the graphic tools have been enhanced. But I would like more info before I decide to shell out another $300.00 for an upgrade.

Any comments or opinions would be welcomed.

Thanks,
Tony

[BvG]

For me the most interesting feature is multidimensional arrays. Although this feature is a bit unfinished in regards to putting into custom variables, it still is the single most empowering feature since a long time. It will allow for many simpler coding, for example to create 2d and 3d maps (I'm interested in making games), greatly simplifies custom xml and other tree-styled data handling, as well as database interfaces.
Even traditional rev arrays have gained, as one can now pass arrays to other handlers as parameters, or return values.

Gradients do not currently interest me much, but mostly because I haven't looked into their possibilities much (only recently started to try transparency). A nice change is the documentation UI, which I think is now actually almost usable for beginners, especially with the start center. The Script editor lacks a no-bells-and-whistles mode, as well as custom colours for the colorisation. It also is extremely space inefficient for advanced users, but again an improvement for beginners. There are of course a swat of bugfixes, and minor enhancements, but I can't remember any to be game changing.

[trevordevore]

I think 3.0 is a pretty significant release and I haven't used the new graphics features yet either. I also don't use the Rev IDE much as I'm a GLX2 user but I do think the new script editor is a huge improvement.

Like BvG I think the biggest feature is multi dimensional arrays. Having a native data structure that can accurately represent hierarchal structures makes a lot of code easier to write and being able to send arrays opens makes designing some libraries and custom controls cleaner and easier.

Some other things that are important -

the urlStatus global property - You can now get the server response when you do something like put ... into url ... or delete url ... I've already used this when interfacing with web services that use the REST architecture, which can return important information after these calls. There is no longer a need to hack libURL in order to get at that data.

Symbols and multi-key shortcuts in menus - If you are creating applications this is a big deal. Previously you had to hand code multi-key shortcuts using a frontscript (or something similar). In addition your customers had no way of identifying what the shortcuts were by looking at your menu.

In addition there have been numerous bug fixes in things like SSL, Unicode, images on the clipboard in Windows and lots more.

I would recommend looking at the Engine Change Log.txt file that is in the same folder as the Revolution executable. It contains all sorts of good information.

I don't know what you use Revolution for but I think it is definitely worth the upgrade.

[Mark]

Hi Tony,

No matter how often people tell you that the new version is great, make sure to test it yourself. It is the only way to find out whether the product is what you expect. If you're no beta tester, please apply for the beta testing programme or wait until after the release and get a 30-day trial.

Best,

Mark