LiveCode post 3.5 on Linux boxes with no display

Ben Rubinstein benr_mc at cogapp.com
Wed Sep 14 09:01:05 EDT 2011


I'm catching on late to the removal of the command-line options from Rev 4.0 
onwards.

Specifically, I have a current application which is sometimes run 
interactively, but can also be run non-interactively from the command line.

Today I had a client that wanted to run it on a Linux box, without a GUI. 
Once I realised the issue, I de-archived my old copy of Rev 3.5, and built a 
standalone with that.  So far that seems to be working with the "-ui" switch - 
not too surprising as the basis of the app is over five years old, and recent 
updates have been minor.

However, it makes me a bit nervous that future updates might take advantage of 
post 3.5 features and inadvertently cause compatability issues; and my 
understanding is that in the last couple of years the Linux engine generally 
has has some substantial improvements (I rarely dabble in that area so I don't 
really know) so it would seem a shame to unable to take advantage of it.  And 
no doubt one day I'll find I can no longer run 3.5 on my Mac to build a 
standalone.

I understand that previously one of the main uses of this mode was for web/CGI 
work, and that it was deprecated once what we now call LiveCode Server 
emerged.  But if I understand that correctly (I may well not), it works as an 
executable that can execute stacks.

Is there any current solution for creating a standalone binary, that can run 
facelessly, specifically on Linux machines without a display?  Or am I 
confined to the 3.5 ghetto?

TIA for any illumination,

Ben




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