What is version 2.7?

[Ken Ray]

On 8/22/06 10:08 AM, "Shari" <shari at gypsyware.com> wrote:

> I've seen many references to version 2.7,  2.6 etc.  Are these
> references to the MC IDE, or to the RunRev engine?

Actually, it's the "file format" version, which is "2.4" for "legacy" stacks
(ones created with MetaCard 2.6.6 and earlier or Revolution 2.6.1 and
earlier), and "2.7" for "normal" stacks (ones created with MetaCard 2.7+ and
Revolution 2.7+).

Let me explain: Keep in mind that when RunRev picked up MetaCard and started
putting out new versions of Rev, there was a disparity between the engine
version and the published version by RunRev, because MetaCard was at 2.5 at
the time of acquisition, and Revolution (the IDE) was only at 2.1.2 (I
believe). From this point until version 2.7, Revolution was playing "catch
up" to the MetaCard version number, and the only way to tell the difference
was that Revolution had (has) a custom function called revAppVersion() that
would give you the Rev version; asking for "the version" gave you the
*MetaCard engine* version.

For example, in Rev 2.1.2:

  put revAppVersion()  --> 2.1.2
  put the version  --> 2.5.1

Now in addition to the *engine* version, and the *IDE* version, there's also
the *file format* version, which is when something major changed to the file
format that made it significantly different than the one before it, causing
warnings about moving between the formats, and also creating the situation
where a stack in the newer file format could not be opened by an older
engine.

The last two major file format changes happened in MetaCard 2.4 and
Revolution 2.7, which is why the *file format* version is 2.4 or 2.7.
Currently, there's the ability to save a stack from Rev 2.7 in "legacy"
format, which gives it the 2.4 file format, or "normal", which gives it the
2.7 file format.

Hope this is clear as mud...

;-)


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