mission critical apps; was Re: cross platform ide

[Chipp Walters]

Alex,
 
My first mission critical app was written in SuperCard! It was a 
Jumbotron display controller for the NBA called "JIVES" and it 
controlled the big screen TV's for NBA teams. As many advertisers 
use the Jumbotron, $$$ were at stake if it didn't work properly. 
In over 5 years of use, to my knowledge, it only malfunctioned 1 
time during a game (actually pre-game and it was due to a bug I 
accidently left in on a new build).

Talking with my C programmer partner Chris, he mentioned that the 
same messaging path problems are found in Delphi and VB as well 
with variants of C including C#. So, how does MS and Borland sell 
their products into mission critical enterprise environments?

If you can believe it, the thing ran on a Mac -- and still didn't crash.

He also stated the big problem with message paths is when the 
message chain gets full and then things get lost. He suggested 
that RR programs can be written to be 'procedural-like' (see 
mc.cgi's for instance) which would cut-down on the possibilities 
of message chain problems.

> > > But, salesmen come in all forms. I would suggest a different 
> tact: Use 
> > > RR to
> > > prototype the mission critical tool.
> > 
> > Don't appeal to programmer productivity. I already know runrev is the 
> > most productive tool for me. That's not the issue. I asked: "How are 
> > you going to sell xtalks in a corporate environment where reliability 
> > and correctness is _more important than programmer productivity_ ?"
> 
You missed the point...it's *not about productivity*, but rather 
the prototyping value of RunRev, which it is not necessary to be 
mission critical safe. The point is use RR to PROTOTYPE. You 
asked how to sell xTalks in corporate environments. Sell it as a 
PROTOTYPE tool.
>  
> > > All of that being said, I am currently working on 3 
> Enterprise class RR
> > > applications. I did them all by prototyping and convincing the 
> > > management
> > > they can save LOTS of $$$ by letting us develop in RR vs VB or C. So 
> > > far,
> > > it's worked.
> > 
> > Great! Are they mission critical? (my definition = $, property or 
> > safety is at stake)
> 
Well, the Homeland Security App has the safety of data at stake. 
Hemingway has the safety of an individuals website at stake -- 
along with the possible loss of revenue from a website being 
down/hacked. The last product is a realestate web application, 
with similar concerns.
> 
best,
 
Chipp