Script Limits

[Wilhelm Sanke]

As the discussion has raised a number of points I had also tried to
express in a post to the use-revolution list on July 21st (when most of
the Revolution team was at the Mac Expo in New York) I repeat this post
here for those members of the Metacard list that are not at the same
time reading the revolution list:

July 21st
Subject: Re: Rev 2.02/New pricing
To: use-revolution at lists.runrev.com

(snip)

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 Geoff Canyon <gcanyon at inspiredlogic.com> wrote:

> The problem with the 10 line limit in the Starter Kit is that it's both
> too big and too small.
>
> It's too small in that anyone unfamiliar with Revolution thinks it's
> worthless.
>
> (snip)
>
> But it's also too large, in that anyone who knows what they're doing
> and are willing to put out the effort can get almost anything done in
> ten lines or less.
>
> So the Starter Kit has the dual problem of not being as effective as it
> could be at bringing in new users, and also of hurting sales because
> people find they can do whatever they need with it.
>
> regards,
>
> Geoff Canyon
>
>

These points could also be seen from a different perspective.

My impression is that the Starter Kit did *not* hurt sales. It did not
hurt you (the Revolution team) in amassing enough money so you could buy
out Metacard. The Starter Kit and the Free Edition helped you to get the
necessary money in the medium run, because quite a number of people
tried the Free Edition for a time longer than the meager thirty days of
a trial version and then bought a full license.

The Free Edition compares favorably with a number of other low-end
authoring systems (in the price range up to 150 US$) - in that is has at
least their potential - and will therefore diminish the sale of such
products.

On the other hand you are right when you say that "almost anything (can)
be done in ten lines or less" with the Starter Kit - that is one of the
many (may I say "former") beauties of Metacard/Revolution.
There may be indeed  that occasional programmer that puts out a
wonderful application, because he has overcome the ten-lines barrier
with much effort and ingenuity. But for any  programmer - other than a
casual hobbyist - that intends to create applications on a more regular
basis, the effort and time needed to overcome the ten-lines barrier by
far outweighs the money saved by not buying a regular license.
This occasional programmer will not hurt sales, on the contrary, by
showing what could be achieved with so much effort, his application
could be an incentive to buy a regular license that allows creating
similar programs without such tremendous effort and  in much less
time.--

We have a special problem here in case the Starter Kit should really
die:

In addition to a full license we have used the Starter Kit for a number
of years as an introductory tool for the (university) students in our
multimedia seminars and workshops. The students need to be able to work
on projects at home outside class hours. They can experiment,  try out
basic functions, and put together small projects. On the other hand,
they can get - or download from our ftp server (or from the many sites
that offer Metacard and Revolution stacks) - examples that have been
developed with a full edition and run them with the Starter Kit. These
stacks will be mostly small, because they are not standalones, and
because of that can be downloaded quickly (which is an important
consideration, because not many students have a DSL connection at home).

The students get a printed documentation  introducing them to a basic
set of commands and algorithms and a number of sample stacks especially
designed for this level.
When the semester finishes, they still have the Starter Kits and can
take second looks and maybe start anew exploring Revolution and showing
it to others.

Both by experimenting on their own and by looking at examples (and their
scripts) - also such produced with a full version -they can develop a
feeling for the rich potential of Metacard/Revolution and could either
be prospective buyers or people that spread the word and encourage
others to buy such a wonderful product.