what is the relation between metacard and revolution?

[Jeanne A. E. DeVoto]

At 7:43 PM -0700 4/13/2002, James Z wrote:
>Can someone tell me what the relation between Metacard and Revolution is? I
>understand that they are compatible and there seems to be some connection
>between the two.

Revolution is based on the MetaCard engine - the underlying language,
object model, stack file format, etc. - with a new user interface for
development, and language and functionality additions in specific areas.
Runtime Revolution Ltd and MetaCard Corp. have a business agreement whereby
the engine is licensed for Revolution.

>Which is better or are they the same?

I'm not exactly an unbiased observer, so I'm not sure I want to answer
that. ;-) Suffice it to say both have their devotees, as well as many who
appreciate both environments.

>How did the compatibility between them come about.

See above. They run on the same engine, so have a high degree of
compatibility. In general you can even move back and forth between the two,
as long as you're not using any Revolution-specific features and as long as
your versions of MC and Rev are on the same engine version.

>Lastly, why is the Metacard mailing list hosted by Revolution?

Runtime Revolution started as Cross Worlds Computing, which did MetaCard
consulting and software. As part of their involvement with the MC
community, Cross Worlds eventually came to host an extensive MetaCard FAQ,
externals, and the mailing list. (The site is still there at
<http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/>.) When Cross Worlds became Runtime
Revolution, it continued to host the list.

--
Jeanne A. E. DeVoto ~ jeanne at runrev.com
Runtime Revolution Limited - The Solution for Software Development
http://www.runrev.com/