What would it take to renew my enthusiasm for LiveCode?

[Alex Tweedly]

Great question Bill. And one I have been asking myself for a while now.

There are many similarities : I am a long time user, I used to do lots 
of programming projects in LC, but haven't found much enthusiasm, or 
even much use, for LC recently.

Here's the short version of my answer currently:

1. Recognise that the need for (almost all) apps to work on 
phone/tablet, combined with the difficulties of ever-changing 
Apple/Google requirements means that "deploy to web" is extremely 
important - and make it central, rather than (as it currently feels) an 
unimportant side-issue.

that means:

a. complete it - adjust to window size changes, document what kind of 
local storage is available and how to use it, make.a *simple* way to 
handle splash-screen / loading message, etc., make sure that I *never* 
see or need the Javascript console or similar junk.

b. accept that any apps used on web will need user registration / login 
/auth - and provide either a library or a sample that provides a simple, 
but extensible, way to do that.

2. a major feature is the data store - document it. Create example apps 
that show off how to use it.

3. Many apps are (basically) an update to using Excel to manage some 
data - so make it trivial to provide a CSV/TSV/XLS file and from it 
create a data table, a single element form for entry/update, a 
spreadsheet (or datagrid) view with editing, ..... Allow a way to add 
constraints and verification rules.

4. STOP making new widgets that are simply a (poor) replacement for 
existing functionality.

case study : there are (fairly recent) widgets for "Date Picker" and 
"Date field". Date picker is a widget that kind of does the same thing 
as many previously available user sample stacks did - only it lacks many 
obvious features, and is not easily modifiable or extensible. It should 
be discarded and replaced by an (open source) script-only widget based 
on the most functionally complete available stack - e.g. Sarah 
Reichelt's (sp?) or Hugh Senior's - but built as a script-only widget so 
the complexity and installation idiosyncrasies are overcome.

(And it is sad that those are something like 20-year old stacks, and 
this widget appears now with so much less capability).

The date field widget should be a thin layer over the date picker - but 
it isn't. It has its own built-in date picker, which is missing many of 
the config options or features available in the date picker widget. So 
instead of being "badly underspecified" it is "pathetically underspecified".

and I'll throw in a wild-card:

5. do a deal with Canela Software to use either the Appli Player, or to 
create a LC player with the same base technology.

and finally,

6. Make it easier (i.e. better documented with examples) to create 
script-only widgets. AFAIK, it's only documented in a lesson, and there 
is no (obvious) description of how to create the documentation for the 
widget. Create a method to contribute / download such widgets.

Best,

Alex.

On 09/08/2026 01:02, William Prothero via use-livecode wrote:
> Folks, I have used LiveCode for most of my projects in the past, but have found it irrelevant to much of my work in Wordpress. It would be great to be able to used LiveCode for some of my projects. Here’s what stops me.:
> 1) development still seems “in progress” with bugs regularly reported
> 2) I don’t see any easily tested and built upon “starter” stacks that can be informative and that demonstrate examples of important operations.
> 3) It seems that all of the security (regularly changing) Apple registration requirements are not needed for internet apps. Web applications should be much easier to implement.
>
> I may be wrong on the above, but it appears that  livecode’s web based  apps do not invite new users to join and experiment in the style of HyperCard that encouraged newbies to “jump on in”, with immediate success on simple calculations and that encourage more exploration.
>
> In the past, I did a lot of programming in Macromedia Director’s programming language, which had super web animation capabilities, as well as other programming capabilities. It was dropped (no longer supported) when it was purchased by Adobe. Too bad. It was a good model for easily deployed web applications.
> So, that’s where I’m at. I’m disappointed, but am retired anyway and don’t do as much programming as I used to.
>
> Best to you all
> Bill
>
> William Prothero
> UCSB Prof, retired.
>
>
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