The future of LiveCode

[Kevin Miller]

Thanks for your feedback. It may interest you to know there are two books
due to be published shortly. We are also hard at work on the new
developers portal which will do a much better job of bringing the
disparate information sources together in a highly searchable format.

In the mean time, have you tried the Business Academy? It is our 4th
"revision" of the Academy concept and has been the most successful by far
at providing the information new (and even existing) users need in
bite-sized chunks.

Kind regards,

Kevin

Kevin Miller ~ kevin at runrev.com ~ http://www.runrev.com/
LiveCode: Unleash Your Killer App




On 20/07/2012 14:02, "stgoldberg at aol.com" <stgoldberg at aol.com> wrote:

>
>
>I have used LiveCode extensively to develop my company's  educational
>software.  It's a great program.  I think one of the reasons why LiveCode
>is not more widely adopted is the lack of an adequate user manual that
>would attract beginners.   I ask, would you recommend the present
>LiveCode user manual to a student who has no background in programming
>and is just starting?  I wouldn't; it's too advanced and incomplete at
>the same time, mixes complex with simple, has no Index, says virtually
>nothing about the all-important property inspectors, and focuses only
>spottily on the key scripting words.  An adequate manual should clearly
>present 150 or so of the basic scripting words, which was the extent of
>HyperCard's vocabulary and made HyperCard easier to learn.  The beginner
>in LiveCode is expected to rely on the LiveCode dictionary, which, while
>truly excellent, contains some 2000 scripting words, far too many for the
>beginner to deal with.  The problem has become more pronounced with new
>advances in LiveCode's features.   This is why I wrote my own manual (190
>pgs. plus figures) for my son.
>
>
>All other major programming languages have a variety of manuals in the
>bookstores.  Where are they for LiveCode?  It is insufficient to just
>direct the user to scattered tutorials on the Internet or to seminars;
>there needs to be a book that the user can easily use while learning the
>programming from scratch.   Many people on this forum (including myself)
>have a background in HyperCard or MetaCard that has made it relatively
>easy to migrate to Revolution/LiveCode.  What happens when the old guard
>dies out?  Will beginners who have no such background replace them?  Or
>will beginners navigate to other programming languages for lack of an
>adequate LiveCode manual?
>
>
>I have spent 25 years teaching medical students and programming in
>HyperCard and its successors. I'd love to develop for mobile apps, but I
>have not yet subscribed to LiveCode for this, because these features are
>not in the present user manual, and I am unaware of adequate, organized,
>step-by-step, printed documentation that puts it all together and I can
>keep in front of me on my desk as I work. (Perhaps Colin Holgate's
>forthcoming book, LiveCode Mobile Development Beginner's Guide, will make
>a difference.)    My publishing company, Medmaster, is based on
>educational principles designed to teach medical students learning
>complex subjects for the first time.  My sense is that sales of LiveCode
>in the schools and elsewhere would rise significantly with better
>documentation.
>
>
>Stephen Goldberg, President
>Medmaster Publishing Co., Inc.
>Professor Emeritus, Univ. of Miami Miller School of Medicine
>www.medmaster.net
>stgoldberg at aol.com
> 
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