Script Editor future (was Open Source Kickstarter Report Card)

[Richard Gaskin]

Kay C Lan wrote:

 > On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 9:03 AM, RunRevPlanet wrote:
 >
 >> None of my comments are from the perspective that enabling LiveCode
 >> to use an external editor is a bad thing.
 >
 > So we agree then. As Richard said, choice is a good thing.
 >
 >> More that for a cross platform IDE, written in it's supported
 >> language, to have an inadequate text editor is a very bad look
 >
 > Again, we agree.
 >
 >> and turns programmers away.
 >
 > Only if they don't have a choice to use something better.

Choice is useful only so long as it's a choice, rather than a requirement.

It would hardly be an INTEGRATED development environment if it didn't 
have a script editor.

Moreover, a script editor is a very good example of the sort of thing 
LiveCode can do very well.

And best of all, AFAIK no one in the company is thinking about shipping 
LC without a script editor.

Given all this, making the current script editor robust and performant 
would logically seem among the highest priorities, since a good SE makes 
the product a joy to use and a poor SE makes LC look bad.  In short, the 
choice is to either make more money or less, to the degree that the SE 
is solid and enjoyable.  After all, it's the one part of the IDE 
everyone uses most often.

Along the way, reinstating an updated version of MetaCard's support for 
external editors would be useful AS AN OPTION, and probably something 
the community could deliver.

To make the latter work well we'll want formatting and colorization 
plugins for as many third party editors as we can make them for - again, 
best done by the community since each of us has our own favorite so each 
of us may be motivated to write a LiveCode add-on for it.

This page at Ken Ray's site discusses how external editors can be used 
in LC, with links to various LC-specific modules (though some of these 
may need to be updated):
<http://www.sonsothunder.com/devres/livecode/downloads/stsMLXEditor.htm>

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