The current version of Revolution, version 2.8.1, is one of the best releases ever. Although focused on robustness and performance, the latest release also introduced several useful new features, such as the new command and private keywords that Sarah Reichelt recently covered here.

Now it's getting even better.

Many of us have been anxious to deploy to Linux, but to truly integrate our apps with the OS we've needed support for native appearances on that platform just as we enjoy with OS X and Windows XP and Vista.

Given the differences between GNOME, KDE, and other window managers, this has been a daunting task, but not too daunting for RunRev's lead engineer, Mark Waddingham.

Revolution 2.9 is now in the testing phase, and the focus of this release is delivering feature parity with Linux as with the other supported platforms. And there's a lot of other goodies in that release which will benefit deployment to all platforms.

Hat's off to the crew at RunRev for what promises a very exciting new version.

- Richard Gaskin
editor, revJournal

The Reactor Lab
In this article Dr. Herz introduces The Reactor Lab, a framework for deploying Rev-based simulations over the Internet.

Handy Handlers #6: EnsurePath
The series continues with a handy one-liner way to ensure a folder path exists.

Commands and Private Handlers
This article by Sarah Reichelt shows you how to make the most of these two new scripting language features in Rev 2.8.1.

Let 'er RIP!
We've added a mirror here of the materials at the Rev Interoperability Group, established to explore ways to make it easier for both developers and users of Revolution plugins to have such tools work together gracefully.

Using Imported Images in Rev
Sandy Beadle
This helpful tutorial covers the basics of using imported images, including background images and blends.

This year's Revolution conference will be held in Las Vegas from May 8 through 11, 2008.

This comprehensive conference has something for everyone, with sessions for beginner, intermediate, and even expert scripters.

Scott Rossi, Jacque Gay, Phil Davis and other Rev pros will present sessions from getting started with Rev to creating externals and more.

The conference will include a special session with RunRev Ltd. CEO Kevin Miller, and RunRev's Director of Technology Mark Waddingham in which they'll discuss future directions for Revolution.

Tickets for the event are still available - Sign Up Today.