On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 10:05 AM, Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 2/18/2015 5:46 PM, Dan wrote:
I'd like a simple offline editor I can use on a personal laptop (Win7) and
not spend RDi kind of bucks.
This turns out to be a handy question for folks like me who also would
not like to spend RDi kind of bucks, and whose employer is unlikely to
be persuaded to spend RDi kind of bucks either.
So, thanks to Dan for asking it, and thanks to the folks who have answered.
Having said that, I have a soft spot for RPGNextGen. Mihael has been
quite responsive to requests from the community, but it's a very small
community indeed. He'd be more than happy to see that community grow by
one.
I think I may well join that community myself. Just moments ago I
tried the RPG Next Gen Editor for the first time, and I am already
very happy with the experience.
The single biggest positive I have to report at this early stage is
the easy installation. It's hands down easier than RDi. I know the
RDi folks harp about the free trial. In principle, it sounds great.
In practice, it won't work well for some folks. In my case, the RDi
downloads are monstrous (two DVDs' worth, over 6 GB total). Then,
once downloaded, I can't install without admin rights. Sure, the RDi
folks say, it'll be worth the "very small" effort/wait to get your
admin to install it for you.
So many folks that I respect have sung RDi's praises that I have no
reason to doubt its value. But the barrier to entry just to get the
trial working is on the high side. In the meantime, I downloaded the
roughly 56 MB RPG Next Gen Editor package, unpacked it, and ran the
executable object right there. In minutes I had connected to the i
and opened a source member.
So you can bet I'll be kicking the tires on RPG Next Gen Editor. So
far it looks pretty good. I'm expecting to encounter rough edges once
I get into it, but even RDi has its rough edges, judging by this list.
I can already say RPG Next Gen Editor is worth a try, if for no other
reason than it *really is* easy to do so.
John Y.
midrange.com
