Applescript; Report Generation; pre-sale questions

[redpill]

Hello:

I have been reading the Revolution documentation, and I noticed the revTalk language looks like AppleScript. Therefore, would having knowledge of the AppleScript language be of substantial benefit when programming with revTalk? I don't just mean syntax: The way objects work; how apple events are handled; etc.

Also, are there any INEXPENSIVE report generators for Revolution and/or SQL? The one recommended add-on here is costly.

Additionally, having been researching a new development environment, I have narrowed my selection to either Revolution or Filemaker Pro. (Panorama has been eliminated, as it has glaring deficiencies that override its apparent powerful data analysis capability.)

Rev Studio and Filemaker Pro Standard Edition are similarly priced; however, FM Pro has the built-in reporting capabilities and a very nice database relationship design tool. But, it looks like Revolution provides the competitive advantage of being able to develop and run on multiple platforms -- including the web (with no additional add-ons like FM Pro).

Consequently, can anyone provide a comparison between these two competing products? It would be beneficial to know before spending a hard-earned $300 US or more.

P.S.: I'm developing and deploying a personal-use application on MacOS X. If I choose Revolution, I will be using the in-built SQLite db. I also plan web access to an existing e-commerce site that uses MySQL.

[bangkok]

Consequently, can anyone provide a comparison between these two competing products? It would be beneficial to know before spending a hard-earned $300 US or more.

P.S.: I'm developing and deploying a personal-use application on MacOS X. If I choose Revolution, I will be using the in-built SQLite db. I also plan web access to an existing e-commerce site that uses MySQL.

I can answer you on this point. Because I use both FM (server) and Runrev. And as a matter of fact, I started with Runrev to "compensate" for the weaknesseses of FM. And now, both tools are "communicating" together. I'm having a blast.

Here are some thoughts :

COST
-RunRev wins. You seem to need only 1 licence of FM, but think about a client-server solution. The couple RunRev/SQL (MySQL, SQLite...) is very hot, and help to reduce costs.

CAPABILITIES
-RunRev wins. Sure FM is a nice and handy tool, but well... its scripting language is very poor (eventhough it's getting better with version 10). But nothing to compare to the power of RunRev. In many cases, the most difficult part is to choose the way to achieve what you want to do : just too many possibilities with RunRev.

FLEXIBILITY
-FM is still a DB system. With RR you can have a DB system, and much more around it.
RunRev is great for front ends (for database), batch processing tool etc.

REPORTING
-I agree, right now it's really fast to create a layout with FM, drop your fields, put somes colors in order to create a report etc. But RR is not far from it (wygiswyg interface, drop objects on the card, live resizing, text fonts, colors etc). The only thing missing actually would be to drop on the the fields linked to the DB. But you could developp your own tools.

LEARNING CURVE
-I'd say : advantage for FM. You'll spend more time to create the SQL functions etc with RunRev. And spend more time writing SQL queries. As you said the relationship designing tool of FM is really good and easy. But on the other hand, what you'll learn will "empower" you for new projects, new ideas etc.

In my case (a business solution with 1 ERP + 1 FM server with 20 clients + many RR apps around those), If I had to redo it, I'd definitely go directly for a RunRev / SQL solution, and scrap the FM Server application.

[bn]

Redpill,
Bangkok answered the most of your questions. Here some more remarks.

I have been reading the Revolution documentation, and I noticed the revTalk language looks like AppleScript. Therefore, would having knowledge of the AppleScript language be of substantial benefit when programming with revTalk? I don't just mean syntax: The way objects work; how apple events are handled; etc.

In my opinion a knowledge of AppleScript helps to have seen a fourth generation language, many of the concepts are similar. But then dissimilar enough to be distinct, despite similarities. Revolution is one language and a pretty elaborate at that whereas Applescript in its core is pretty restricted and you have to learn the "applescript variant" of each application you are scripting. This is not AppleScript's fault, it is just the structure of AppleScript that each application has to provide the extension to applescript that make sense in the context of that application. Rev is more consistent in this way and I would say in many cases easier (chunk expression).
But what I do, similar to Bangkok, I link Rev, Applescript and Filemaker in my main project and it works very well.

Also, are there any INEXPENSIVE report generators for Revolution and/or SQL? The one recommended add-on here is costly.

Rev is a development environment with the option to distribute Standalones. The add-ons include an unlimited license to distribute this add-on in your application. Consider this and it is not expensive. And, as Bangkok said, you can always write your own.

Redpill, if you go for Rev you have to realize that you are much more into programming compared to FileMaker. You have to program things FileMaker has right out of the box. (For example I like Filemaker's option to directly publish your database to the web. The layout may be not world class but you get an easy way to have a database that is consistent on the desktop and the web with very little work. But if you are willing to spend the time learning Rev you have a tool that is more versatile, opening opportunities beyond the database-centric ones of FileMaker.
regards
Bernd

[redpill]

Thank you very much for your insights. Both of your replies are very well thought out and informative.

One very important point made by "bn" (that I forgot about) is add-on licensing. That is a huge expense when distributing an application. One company that comes to mind is 4D. They really go for the jugular with their licensing fees.

By the way: I checked into the pricing for the report generator add-on listed here on runRev's site. There is a standard version for $149 and another for $300. So, maybe it is not too bad; especially when one considers this: FileMaker Pro starts at $300. But, if one wants to do something as simple as create custom menus for an application, one must buy the Developer version which will cost $500. So, perhaps Rev Studio plus the report generator is not such a bad investment after all!

It looks like I will have to download a trial version of Rev Studio and experiment with it.