LC Server style survey: co-mingle code w/HTML?

[Bob Hall]

> On Dec 5, 2017, at 1:18 PM, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com <mailto:use-livecode at lists.runrev.com>> wrote:
> 
> I have some tools I developed for server apps, which allow me to develop and test both client and server within the same local LC IDE instance. As you can imagine, this has improved development efficiency by orders of magnitude.
> 
> It's much a much more xTalk-like way of working, and once you use it having to be tied to a server for every little test feels like building a ship in a bottle with tweezers while wearing a blindfold.
> 
> When I started making these tools I was using standalones exclusively for server work, partly because it reflects my habits gained from using LC as a CGI for many years before LC Server existed, and partly because I have no need to co-mingle code in HTML like PHP does, except a few cases where the merge function works quite nicely.

Richard,

I wanted to reply to your original question. I’m not sure I know exactly what you’re asking. I do have projects that I use the existing LC Server with co-mingling. In my opinion, co-mingle was once in fashion and the norm, then fell out of fashion. But I’ll be honest, it’s making a come back. As you know there is a lot of opinion in this area.

There are examples of languages with this pattern you see in PHP/LC which has been pointed out. I’d like to add that newer Javascript frameworks seem to be making a return to co-mingling HTML and the language.Yes, JS is more of a client language. But there are server projects that use this pattern. Look at some of the new ES6/ES7 standard to see the new definitions for this. You see this pattern also with JSX/React.

Your LC IDE tools are very intriguing to me. I’ve pretty much tried to stick with MVC type patterns for LC Server projects isolating anything html/lc mixing to the view files in their own view directory structure.

In the last couple of months I’ve been “playing” (really that’s all it’s been) with how to use .livecodescript files instead of .lc files for the guts of LC Server projects. My goal was to be able to use the IDE for creating/debugging server projects including using breakpoints and being able to see the raw output as well as a rendered view.

I got far enough to see there’s promise in my method and was able to use the IDE to build a very small server project. Then I got busy at my real work and put this on the back burner :-(

Anyways, I do think that mixing LC and HTML is a viable option. Being able to do that in the IDE does I think open the door to more LC Server based projects going out the door.

I’m very interested in your tools and suspect there is great value in what you’ve created.

Bob Hall