Open Source Kickstarter Report Card

[RunRevPlanet]

I am using LiveCode 8.0 DP2 as my baseline, as I understand it to be the future
and not the 7.0 series. And my comments are from a Windows perspective.

Richard said:

 > What usability standards do you feel are
 > not well reflected in the current IDE,
 > and if Kevin made you IDE Czar tomorrow
 > what are the first three things you'd do to
 > fix that?

Here are three items.

1. Fix up the mess of the find and replace. For example:

a. There is no keyboard shortcut for find previous.

b. Ctrl+Shift+F is not a standard shortcut for Find and Replace.

c. Cannot do a find and replace within selected text.

d. While in the editor to find and replace across, say a card or stack, you need
to click on the IDE toolbar and then choose a different Find and Replace
command.

2. Improve debugging usability:

a. Cannot view Variable Watches and Breakpoints simultaneously.

b. The Call stack is a dropdown list and so requires clicking with the mouse to
view it each time.

3. Fix up the new property inspector:

a. It should be possible to select the different panes with the mouse.

b. Within a pane if the tab key is used to move to the next item, it is
impossible to determine what property is current when in a series of check
boxes.

c. Within a pane when the tab key is used to move to the next item, when a text
field is reached the existing text should be selected and the cursor be placed
at the end.

That is my top three. While I am in control here are some other
problems/suggestions:

4. New widgets do not show a contextual menu when right clicked.

5. There is no editor bookmark feature.

6. Customise the selection of actions/buttons on the main toolbar.

7. There is no keyboard shortcut to switch to the IDE toolbar/menu from the
script editor.

8. Using the same keyboard shortcuts depending what window has the focus is
confusing.

9. The smart indent cannot be turned off and there is no option for using the
tab character with the smart indent is on.

10. Make all the dialogues and windows follow a consistent style and spacing of
elements.

None of these are terribly advanced or unreasonable for a developer to expect.
These are basic features programmers expect from an IDE today.

On a more subjective level, the LiveCode IDE has a look that can put an
experienced programmers off.

That is part of the problem with the IDE that I think goes to the heart of
challenges with LiveCode going open source.

For open source projects to be successful it is important to attract experienced
programmers who can contribute. But with LiveCode, experienced programmers who
try it, dismiss it because of the general idiosyncratic feel it has.

>From the uncustomisable toolbar with chunky icons, to the script editor that is
flaky and sluggish. LiveCode doesn't "feel right".

You and I know that the power and advantages of LiveCode lies beneath the
"clunky" surface of the IDE and I understand LiveCode's mission is too allow
*everyone* to code, but to repeat a point: attracting the right talent to help
with an open source programming tool, requires appealing to the advanced
programmers too.

I love LiveCode, but as it currently stands, I *never* look forward to working
in the LiveCode IDE.

Thanks for listening.
--
Scott McDonald
"Components, Controls, Tools and Resources for LiveCode"
www.runrevplanet.com