xTalk Syntax (was Re: Andy's comments and positioning...)

[Ken Ray]

> I thought Kevin dealt well with that one the other day. If 
> anyone has a 
> perception that Rev is a Mac tool, there's not much that can 
> be done to 
> help them. The MacWorld (UK?) reviewer who said that obviously had 
> spent little or no time writing the review. Nothing at RunRev's Web 
> site, in their marketing or, anywhere else that I've seen 
> conveys that 
> message.

Sorry, Dan, I respectfully disagree. Rev has had ads or been written
about in several Mac magazines (MacWorld UK, MacAddict, MacTech), but I
have yet to see an ad or write-up in a PC magazine (and I subscribe to a
bunch). I don't know about UNIX mags, but perhaps someone else can
comment on this. Do a web search for "Runtime Revolution" and see just
how many "hits" you get for sites that advertise or promote PC
development tools or news on the PC front. 

And look at the web site - the first page (after you get past the flags)
has the words "Mac", "MacWorld" and "MacUser" all over it. I *know* this
not the norm and is because we just came out of MacWorld, and Rev won an
Eddy in MacWorld magazine, but for people going to the site in the last
couple of months, it helps to form an opinion that Rev is primarily a
Mac tool.

And speaking of MacWorld, RunRev has been at conventions selling Rev,
but what kinds of conventions? Almost exclusively Mac conventions
(AFAIK). And once again, regardless for the reason for it, it adds to
the "buzz" about Rev as a Mac tool.

Additionally, Rev is very often compared to RealBasic - primarily known
as a Mac development environment - and that doesn't help its image one
bit. 

Finally, there are a handful of features that need to be in the product
(IMHO) to be "taken seriously" in the PC community (ActiveX support,
Win32 DLL access, etc.), which may be part of the reason it's not been
covered in the PC trades.

Look, I'm not trying to say that what RunRev's doing is not helping sell
boxes, but what I *am* saying is that the groundswell of commentary on
Rev is in the Mac community. And to shake that off and truly be a
cross-platform tool, RunRev will need to balance the Mac marketing with
marketing in the Windows and UNIX communities, when it is the
appropriate time to do so.

Just my $0.02,

Ken Ray
Sons of Thunder Software
Email: kray at sonsothunder.com
Web Site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/