LiveCode for the rest of us

[Roland Huettmann]

Dear Mark, dear Brahmanathaswami, dear all

Thank you very much for your comments. They stir more thinking... )

But if LC is not a graphics tool, not a database tool, not a network tool,
what is it then?

Is it a front-end tool to develop rich interface for various operating
systems? How well does it do this job?

And Brahmanathaswami is pointing out a number of important missing points.

When the level of sophistication goes up - and I am just talking of front
end functionality - then the show is over quickly. Or it needs developers
mastering the extra mile - and then the advantage of such tool is quickly
lost in comparison with other tools and languages on the market.

I have spent many hours - actually weeks - in trying to accomplish
something more sophisticated in LC just on the user interface level - while
other developers doing the same with C# or Java won the race in terms of
how the end product really performed and looked in the end. The end product
is what counts.

And I understand the advantages and disadvantages. I am all for LiveCode
!!!.

But in LC I continuously seem to be developing my own tool set first of all
- (nobody will buy that) - even to accomplish relatively easy tasks. I am
sitting here to develop tools based on tools to feel at ease with my actual
purpose of developing an application (95% database driven). Why do I have
to spend all that time? And why the end product still is missing something
here, and something there? Was this really a good investment of time?

And yes - LC needs to allow for really cool visual design and have a cool
design itself - as it is mainly a front end application builder. Is it?

I happened to watch the roll-out of Hypercard in those old days, and it hit
the Macintosh "masses". But guess what was selling in the end? Even in
those days, the application "Focal Point" of Danny Goodman (such a nice
friendly guy) was making money - not the tool Hypercard. And I translated
it and took it to the European markets localizing and adding functions. It
was a great experience. How many years back? Where are we now? A lot can be
learned even from those experiences.

The point here: Applications serving a purpose may sell. And they must be
"state of the art" at least.

In then end, nobody is asking HOW you made them.

Only in rare cases, and when there are really large developer communities -
 tools sell. And a danger is inherent especially in tools trying to be an
"Eierlegende Wollmilchsau" - a German idiom for something that tries to be
a multi-purpose everything at once. My literal translation: "egg-laying
milk-bearing wool-giving sow".

You can never have enough developers to accomplish that. )

And we all seem to be sitting here opening our beaks as a band of chicks
 expecting the worms to be crammed into our throats. )

How could Kevin ever accomplish that? My highest admiration on one side. My
sorrowful face on the other.

Certainly, I am aware of the promises of LC 8 ))). It is a great promise.

Roland