METACARD ACQUIRED BY RUN REV!!!

[Richard Gaskin]

Shari wrote:

> What happens to Metacard, impacts those who rely on it for their
> bread and butter.  I love xTalk languages.  And was hoping/expecting
> that Scott/Metacard would be around a long time so that I could use
> it as my foundation.

There's a hint about the MC side of things in this quote from Dr. Raney:

  "The future of multi-platform software development is
   Runtime Revolution, and I'm pleased to be joining the
   development team that will take it there."

That gives the impression he's still quite involved, and it's clear he has a
strong preference for a lean IDE.  Perhaps he'll chime in with his plans for
the IDE soon.

Personally, I've been so impressed with Tuviah's excellent work with Scott
on the engine over the last year that at this time I have a good feeling
about this:  it seems reasonable to expect that unified coordination of
development resources will yield more effecient expansion of the engine
going forward.  

One of the good things about Rev is that they eat their own dog food, as
Jobs used to say.  With the Rev IDE being based on the MC engine and pushing
it to its limits, it would seem the stuff they need should enable the stuff
we need too.   I've already seen some of this effect with regard to the new
group properties in MC 2.5, in which their needs mirrored mine but gave the
request a much stronger weight.   With Scott and Tuviah working in a more
integrated way with the rest of the team, it would seem they're in a
position to add things like that even faster.

And as much as I like MC's lean operation I don't think Scott has any
illusions about marketing to the masses.  He's been profitably marketing to
his core audience which works for him, but as developers we benefit from the
vendor who can generate the greatest interest among the general public.

Rev has been very effective in getting the word out, and most professional
xTalk developers I know have seen an increase in new business in proportion
to RunRev's efforts over the last year, even as my friends using more
commodity languages like VB, Java, and C++ are losing work to the economy
and overseas brokerages (Microsoft moved a few hundred more of their jobs to
India just last week).

So the combination of Rev's IDE pushing the engine harder for features we
can benefit from, and their demonstrated effectiveness in marketing, the
only thing not covered in the FAQ is what will happen to the MC IDE....

-- 
 Richard Gaskin 
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