LiveCode startup

[Richard Gaskin]

Mike Doub wrote:

 > i am trying to understand the start up sequence of livecode.
 > Is there any documentation on the engine and it's architecture?

Depends what you want to do.  For most scripters, the User Guide 
provides sufficient description of the message sequence.  But if you 
want to make a custom IDE, there are some details that won't interest 
most folks that might interest you, and I could put together a tech note 
if needed.

What are you looking to do?

PS - a thought on one item in your list:

 > When you build a standalone of your app, the IDE builds a executable
 > of the engine and your main stack but it renames your main stack to
 > the name of that first stack in number 1 above so when you run the
 > standalone your stack is the first to run.

Stack objects are not renamed.  After all, if they were then any scripts 
that refer to that stack would break.

During build time the engine executable becomes statically bound to a 
copy of your stack file, with a pointer within the engine that finds the 
beginning if your mainstack object within the executable file so it can 
unpack it and start sending messages.

In most respects (aside from initialization scripts specific to the 
IDE), the boot sequence is very similar to what you see when opening a 
stack in LiveCode, with the exception that the startup message isn't 
sent since the IDE gets that when it starts up.

Once we know more about what you're looking to do we can provide clear 
advisement on how to go about it.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com