Review: LiveCode Community is open-source HyperCard for the 21st century - suttonyoughtley

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

• Fully integrated developing environment
• Straightforward programing language
• Database and Entanglement features

Cons

• Outdated surgery missing documentation

Our Verdict

A free development surroundings with cross-platform features and easy user interface introduction is worth at least a few hours of your time to evaluate information technology.

Many old age agone, there was HyperCard, included free with the Macintosh in the past 1980s. It got a lot of attention because it was united of the first tools that successful it trivial to produce GUI applications. Apple couldn't figure out how to by rights market or position information technology, sol information technology sooner or later died of apathy. RunRev has been publication Revolution, nowadays named LiveCode, as a spiritual successor to Hypercard, for a piece, and LiveCode now shares one more alpha trait with Hypercard: Information technology's now spare.

LiveCode earns the "live" name as you seamlessly swap between a testing and editing.

LiveCode Community Edition is the free, ASCII text file, carrying out of LiveCode. It has virtually all the features of the dealing edition, with matchless major exclusion: Complete apps created with it must be unprotected-informant. This means that it cannot be wont to create apps for Orchard apple tree's App Memory (as the license is non compatible). While it's possible to create and distribute dealings programs with LiveCode Community of interests edition, the open source nature will work against well-nig business plans.

LiveCode applications are based on the concepts of "stacks," with each stack containing one or more "cards," and from each one card containing a mix of joint items (so much as background knowledge images and fields) and unique items (such as textual matter in a field, operating theatre a control which appears on only one card. An application can have umteen scads, and this is often how dialogue boxes and exceptional windows are implemented: A stack holds one wit, which is the dialog.

The entire development and editing environment for LiveCode is written in LiveCode. That's something you could never do with HyperCard or its older clones and siblings. LiveCode might not be what you want to write the next Word or WoW in, but it's an excellent tool for tailored applications, especially many kinds of utilities, hierarchal market programs, and internal corporate tools. It's also an excellent pedagogy tool… mostly.

LiveCode's written tools support bitmap and vector graphics, and you can create and manipulate vivid objects through code.

The major drawback to LiveCode Community Edition is that although it has many new and cool features, much as a powerful data reference grid that posterior embed complex forms in each mobile phone, the documentation hasn't unbroken upfield with the program. The nicely indexed and reorganized reference dictionary is several iterations behind the code base. The multi-hundred page PDF manual is clear, well-written, and also several versions old. There are plenty of samples and walkthroughs on the LiveCode site, but you've got to dig around to rule them. There's a "LiveCode Honorary society" that has detailed lessons and tutorials…. but most cost money.

RunRev is actively working to fill in the gaps in the corroboration, and asking users to contribute, but be prepared to do a little of digital legwork to find all of the information you might need to use any of the newer features.

A second, minor, glitch is some interface oddities. Some dialogs blow and some don't, few of the tools manage not work exactly arsenic specified (sometimes collectible to the documentation being for the Macintosh version), and so forth. Goose egg critical, but you'll require to get accustomed LiveCode's quirks.

The LiveCode dictionary is great for the things it covers, but it's in need of a stellar update.

I began my professional computer programming career with HyperCard. I am very fortunate to see a version that's same 21^st-century reminiscent, with modest database and Entanglement functionality. Now that the price has dropped to "free," I strongly recommend leastways looking ended LiveCode and seeing if IT's a useful tool for you.

Take down: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you must register to download the latest version of the software.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/452142/review-livecode-community-is-open-source-hypercard-for-the-21st-century.html

Posted by: suttonyoughtley.blogspot.com

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