LiveCode Community - anyone up for maintaining the community edition?

Wed Sep 1 09:36:02 EDT 2021

I’m afraid I have to agree with Andre that if people didn’t contribute before, with Livecode Ltd. overseeing the process, they’re not going to now.  A large part of the problem is that there just aren’t very many of us with the time and skills to make contributions to the engine.

Like Sean, I’m wondering about the status of LCB and widgets. This seemed like a considerable effort to facilitate community contributions and it would be unfortunate not to leverage this somehow going forward. If this architecture were to remain and be enhanced perhaps the company could offer discounts on subscriptions in exchange for contributions. Maybe a dedicated section of the forums listing and discussing features that might be added.  Also, why not keep the IDE “open” in some sense?  If a little more guidance were provided on the design of the IDE I think there are a lot of us that have the scripting skills to improve it.

Some ideas along these lines might have more chance of success than a “go it alone” community open source effort.

Tim Bleiler, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer, HSIT
University at Buffalo

> On Sep 1, 2021, at 8:59 AM, Sean Cole (Pi) via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
> The main reasons I stopped contributing were:
> No easy support for LiveCode script as it was all in binary so versioning
> was non-existent.
> Life cycle between a pull request, merge and deployment
> 
> The dictionary was the only place I was able to properly contribute. But it
> still sucked a lot. And was inconsistent between the Doc Viewer and the Doc
> panel in the script editor. I kind-of got fed up with all of it. The new AI
> thing is cool. But it would be good to have a good portal for submitting
> updates and improving the quality of the Guide/Dictionary.
> 
> Liking where LC10 is heading. I was an outspoken naysayer of Open Sourcing.
> TBH, I didn't understand the need. I liked it a bit more when it happened.
> I definitely liked peeking into the core and getting a better understanding
> of how stuff like the datagrid worked and other bits and bobs.
> 
> But I am happier now it's gone back into the hands of LCLtd. It makes much
> more sense.
> 
> I'd be interested to know if a new SDK is being implemented if it's now no
> longer open source. Or if Widgets and LCB will remain the main way in
> (which is probably fine).
> 
> Sean
> *Pi *
> 
> On Wed, 1 Sept 2021 at 13:26, Andre Garzia via use-livecode <
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
>> People had eight years to contribute to the community edition, and they
>> didn't. I don't think people would now start caring for and devoting the
>> necessary energy to maintain the community edition. It is because people
>> didn't organise and contribute that this recent change happened.
>> 
>> On Wed, 1 Sept 2021 at 12:56, David Bovill via use-livecode <
>> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Here are my thoughts on this - and a request.
>>> 
>>> Yes - it’s not a surprising move by Livecode Ltd - they were clearly
>>> struggling supporting the community aspect and taking the language to the
>>> next level and they need more revenue to do that.
>>> 
>>> The question is (for my part at least) - what to do about this.
>> Personally
>>> I have never seen a future for a closed source language, and the
>> projects I
>>> work on will not fund. Projects developed in closed source - especially
>> by
>>> a small company. So I have a choice, switch language, or look to continue
>>> with developing with the community edition and help build an open source
>>> community around that. The former (switching languages) is relatively
>> easy,
>>> the latter a lot of work.
>>> 
>>> I’m happy to have a company like Livecode Ltd create closed source
>>> products  that I can use, so how to have both an open source language,
>> and
>>> the ability to work with closed source products developed by Livecode
>> Ltd?
>>> As I see it the only option is for those interested in the community to
>>> take control and responsibility for the core language.
>>> 
>>> There are a number of options with regard to future language development,
>>> that would put the language on an even par with other open source
>>> languages, and there are also new ways to finance such initiatives. It
>>> would be valuable to get together as a community and discuss those.
>>> 
>>> How about having a community conference to look at what is possible? We
>>> can do this online and showcase new and existing open source projects and
>>> discuss the opportunities this new environment presents?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 📆    Schedule a call with me
>>> On 1 Sep 2021, 12:18 +0100, David V Glasgow via use-livecode <
>>> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com>, wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On 1 Sep 2021, at 11:26 am, Bernard Devlin via use-livecode <
>>> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> There you had a group of programmers who supposedly loved what
>>>>> HyperCard could do, but they only loved that concept as a historical
>>>>> artefact, not as a tool available to people now.
>>>> 
>>>> Abso-frogging-lutely.
>>>> 
>>>> The really interesting questions are “why?" and “Is there anything we
>>> could do about it?”
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Best Wishes,
>>>> 
>>>> David Glasgow
>>>> Consultant Forensic & Clinical Psychologist
>>>> Carlton Glasgow Partnership
>>>> Director, Child & Family Training, York
>>>> Honorary Professor
>>>> Sexual Offences, Crime and Misconduct Research Unit
>>>> Nottingham Trent University
>>>> 
>>>> 
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