Achilles Heel of Livecode

[Richard Gaskin]

Rick Harrison wrote:

 > Try writing a serious arcade game with LiveCode.
 > Sorry but it just isn’t up to the task as it isn’t fast
 > enough.

Agreed, but I don't know what the solution is.  Maybe Mark Waddingham 
can chime in here with guidance.

 > Remember Compile-It for Hypercard?  Perhaps
 > we need something similar for LiveCode that
 > would run at standalone creation time, or
 > whenever we request it for that extra-speed.

If you've ever slugged through trying to actually build an external with 
Compile-It, I think you'll agree it's not the answer here.

Moreover, simply having access to any compiler won't do much for the 
engine's rendering algo.  Deep revisions at the engine level would be 
needed for any significant boost to *rendering* performance.

 > I know the system took a big hit with Unicode,
 > so how about the option to turn it off for programs
 > requiring super speed?

Unicode does impact many text operations, but has minimal impact on 
rendering.  The switch to Skia as the rendering engine is likely more 
relevant, and occurred during a similar time period.

But since Skia is so widely used by so many apps, I'd like to believe 
there's a way LC can use to get results on par with other systems that 
use 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