My Linux GUI builder gets a face lift

[Tom Russell]

This is for anyone who is not a programmer and wants to develop their own stuff on Ubuntu that works on any platform. Programmers and professional scripters can use it too, but I'm for user power.

Any professional who tries this application will see how easy it is for ordinary users to at least prototype their own ideas to see if they will work, saving the professional a lot of time and energy and give the user a lot of needed input into the solution.

There is a new beta of Runtime Revolution out for testing, which means you can get it for free as long as you register.


These are some of the things that Bill Marriott the Revolution Beta Test Coordinator has to say about the reasons for updating the Linux version.

"The Importance of Linux

That cute little penguin is starting to throw its weight around. Over the summer, Runtime Revolution polled thousands of users about what they used to develop software, and their goals for software deployment. The results backed up the anecdotal reports and email requests for more attention on the Linux front.

Remarkably, nearly one in five respondents reported they used Linux for development either frequently or as their primary development platform. Even more amazing was that 41% reported that Linux was essential, extremely important, or important as a deployment platform. That's a figure that rivals Windows Vista!

It's clear that being on Linux - and doing it well - is important to customers. Although Revolution has supported Linux from the beginning, the last major release for that platform was in October of 2005 and was beginning to show its age. The platform has matured considerably in the past two years, and Revolution 2.9 represents state-of-the-art support for today's Linux operating systems."

We all know there is nothing remarkable about it as Linux is a child of the UNIX development platform, but it is good to see the normally closed proprietary development community is recognising the fact.
He talks a little about the challenges of the Linux port and guess what distro he is using.

"The Challenges of Linux

There are literally hundreds of variants of Linux, and while the emerging leader on the desktop is Ubuntu, the lack of standardization, even within a single distribution, can create headaches for anyone wanting to support the Linux platform.

Revolution 2.9 was developed on Ubuntu 7.x and OpenSuse 10. Those distributions - and most others released within the last couple years - will have the technologies you'll need to enjoy these new capabilities pre-installed and pre-configured (stuff like composited window managers, Paugo, Xft, GTK, and TrueType fonts).

Runtime Revolution engineers have also extensively tested on Ubuntu 6.x and other variants of Linux. A major consideration was that functions "degrade gracefully" to minimize development and distribution headaches. Instead of failing to run, crashing or producing an ugly error, you'll receive the "best effort" result if a required library is missing. Revolution 2.9 is designed to run on just about any Linux system released within the last four years or so (minimum requirements are linux kernel 2.4, glibc 2.2.4, and X11R5)."

You can see they are really serious. In my next blog I can show you some of the fundamental methods of linking shell scripts with this GUI builder if you like, but first you are going to get it from here.

"How to Get It

To participate in the Revolution 2.9 "Open Beta" and help the engineers put the final polish on this version, just fill out the application form at:

http://support.runrev.com/beta_test.php

Hundreds of Revolution users already are part of the Open Beta and have made this version possible with their testing efforts and feedback. If you haven't already, join the process which is helping to release the best version ever of our favorite development tool."

So my fellow travellers on the space platform that is Ubuntu, let us all add some extra protuberances and make the world take note that even we, the users, can write GUI programs.