I need to re-enter the world of RW / Stacks after a lengthy hiatus. I’m still on RW7.5 and Stacks 4.5
Am aware of the ongoing controversy regarding the devs going their own ways, in an ideal world I’d just buy Stacks standalone app, but I need to get going soon and can’t wait on an unspecified release date.
Should I persevere as I am or upgrade to RW9 and Stacks 5? Or is RW9 actually ‘classic’ and therefore incompatiable with Stacks 5? Can I just upgrade to 8? Is it worth the hassle?
There is also of course the possibility that the new Stacks app will not load RW files- anyone have any info on this?
@robertthesquirrel Most of us “regular” folks (i.e. non-developers) have little solid information regarding the Stacks Pro standalone app. The basic idea is that this new app will import RW files but we don’t know how hard/easy that will be and what kind of caveats will exist. It would certainly make sense to wait for the Pro app if you can, but I don’t know when even a public beta will arrive. I’m assuming (oops, that’s a dangerous word) before June/July but I may be wildly wrong.
Regarding Stacks 5 … Isaiah has stated that any money you spend on Stacks 5 will be counted towards the full price of Stacks Pro. So that’s great news!
With RW … that’s trickier to tell. Will Stacks Pro work well with RW9? I have no idea. However, it’s definitely the idea that Stacks Pro will work well with RW8. So that’s an argument in favor of just upgrading to version 8. (It’s also the version I’m currently using.)
Some developers or insiders might have some better information for you. Hope this helps a wee bit.
@Jannis Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. Hopefully Stacks Pro will be able to open RW8 and RW9 projects. But I’m not sure if we know that right now. Heck, will it open RW7 project files?
If you know, let us know! I know the intent was for Stacks Pro to open RW8 projects, but that was a statement Isaiah made before RW9 (Classic) was released.
As a developer you may be able to answer this question with less ambiguity than me!
I don’t know. My assumption is, as RW8 and RW9 (RWC) projects are technically more or less the same, if one will be possible to open, the other should also be.
I thought that the idea is, as we’re talking about Stacks here, that these Stacks pages are to be opened, exported or extracted by Stacks Pro,. Opening a RW project with pages other than the Stacks plugin pages aren’t going to work. But hey, that’s what I think. Only Isaiah (or someone from his team/inner circle can tell how it’s going to be.
@Konfuzzious You could well be right. I don’t know either. But it’s an important detail … the harder it is to move from RW to SP, the less people will do it. The “intent” is clear, but who knows what will be the “reality”. I’m hoping the transition all works smoothly, but I’m not assuming it will.
Thanks guys, good info. You really can’t say fairer than that Stacks 5 purchase cost counting towards the cost of the standalone app when it’s released, so that’s good.
Does anyone know how I would go about upgrading RW just to version 8, not 9? The ‘Classic’ thing is confusing, I assume that’s just a ‘rebrand’ of the existing app prior to launching a new one (much the same as OS 9 / OS X was.
I’m no techie, but the Stacks app being able to import Stacks data from a current RW file and 'hopefully painlessly) build a new file from it seems a plausible scenario.
RW brought this on themselves really, the app has never been much without it’s myriad of addons and user generated content.
RW is a good app, actually. RealMac have maintained it well, improved the interface with lots of little enhancements over the years, kept it at a reasonable price. It’s just hard to see where exactly it could go now: its original raison d’être expired years ago. Elements would have been a good idea, if they could have given them the ability to do things stacks can’t, and enabled the ability to run Stacks alongside. But “Chatbot, make me a website!” is clearly just around the corner.
IMO the best combo right now is RW8 and Stacks 4.x. RW9 and Stacks 5 are best seen as Kickstarters for their respective companies (well, Kickcontinuers, really). That’s not a bad thing — we need to support them. But neither adds much in the way of useful functionality.
Rw7.5 + Stacks4.5 is imho the most stable combination and effectively nothing new has been added that adds genuine value or allows you to build a better site.
Stacks 5 would be worth upgrading to, but more to support Yourhead than anything, but not sure if it works with rw7.