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Issue 8.4

REVIEW

BKeeney Software's REALbasic Video Training

Issue: 8.4 (May/June 2010)
Author: Dave Mancuso
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 4,145
Starting Page Number: 12
Article Number: 8406
Related Link(s): None

Full text of article...

REALbasic books and documentation have become somewhat sparse in the past few years, and even the best of them become more obsolete with each new version of REALbasic. The mailing lists and the REALbasic forums are an excellent resource, and several websites also try to fill the need for good instruction and tutorials. BKeeney Software is the first website to provide a full complement of training videos. BKeeney's REALbasic training videos aim to deliver instruction that's meaningful yet compact.

The BKeeney website is pretty clear about the training videos and how to access them. Some of the videos are free and serve as an introduction to the subscription videos. They also show you what to expect from the video collection, since they are tutorial videos themselves. The website contains FAQs on how the videos work, and multiple subscriptions are available. It's nice to see both an automatically renewing subscription and a non-renewing subscription. There is a discount for educational users (students and faculty); you email the vendor for details.

While the collection of training videos is growing, there is a wide variety of selections on the site ready for viewing. They're categorized by Controls, Language, and a Journal Entry Project that takes you through a full application development process. Each category currently has about thirty videos of varying length. There is plenty of material to keep a user busy and learning for quite a long time.

Each video sets forth what it covers at the beginning. As an educator, it's nice to see this clarity in the video's approach. The videos also states what it won't cover, so the user's expectations are clearly set. The bullet points delineating the items to be covered in each video are appreciated, so both verbal and visual learning styles are addressed.

The videos themselves go quickly. They're compact and filled with information, There's not a moment wasted in delivering the topic to the user. This might be daunting, but you can stop the video at any time to follow along in your own IDE, starting again when you've mastered a point in the instruction.

The instruction itself is easy to follow. Bob Keeney's narration is easy to listen to, and his demonstrations are right on target with the audio. It's very easy to follow the topic as it moves along throughout the video. I liked the coverage of both older topics like the TextField control and the newer TextArea control. The content of the videos tends to have new tips for experienced users as well as newer REALbasic programmers. There's really something for everyone here.

In conclusion, it's clear that these videos are a very valuable resource for both newer and seasoned developers. If you want to learn REALbasic, or pick up tips you missed while teaching yourself, BKeeney Software's REALbasic Training Videos are an excellent choice.

End of article.