Live LiveCode "other tools" topics

[Colin Holgate]

At the Live LiveCode meetings we don't always have a presenter, and it's a shame to miss a week here or there, so I've suggested doing some meetings on "other tools". That is, other authoring tools that a client might ask you if you know about, or they may ask you whether that other tool might be better than LiveCode for a given job.

There are a lot of jobs where LiveCode is the best tool to use, but if you tell a client that some other tool isn't suitable for a reason that it turns out isn't correct, your client may think less of you, especially if it was a trick question, and they know that the other tool can do that feature!

So, there are at least three reasons to look at other tools:

1. You can speak more knowledgeably about why LiveCode is better for a given job.
2. Perhaps you'll like the other tool enough to take on more work when nobody is asking for things to be done in LiveCode.
3. Those other tools are neat in their own way.

I'm only thinking there would be one of these every month or so, or if we get stuck for a LiveCode related presentation, and the meeting would be a mixture of looking at the strong points of the other tool, seeing how that tool might go about reproducing some of LiveCode strong points, and how LiveCode might go about doing the other tool's strong points.

I can show a few of these tools, but it would be good to have someone else to present on how LiveCode might reproduce some of the features in the other tools.

We may well try this next Saturday, unless there's a sudden rush of presenters on LiveCode topics. The first tool we would look at is Unity, which is often used for 3D games, on desktop and mobile (as well as consoles). It can be used for other simulations too, and even 2D games.

For the LiveCode counterpart to this I was hoping someone could show Franklin in action. I emailed Lynn, but he hasn't replied yet.

Other tools we would look at would include Flash, Director, and RealBASIC (though I don't really know much about that one).

Does this all sound of interest?