LiveCode post 3.5 on Linux boxes with no display

Ben Rubinstein benr_mc at cogapp.com
Thu Sep 15 13:48:38 EDT 2011


On 14/09/2011 16:43, Mark Wieder wrote:
> Ben-
>
> Wednesday, September 14, 2011, 6:01:05 AM, you wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> To be clear about this, the commandline options have *not* disappeared
> from post-3.5 LC. I have a commercial app that would have *very*
> serious problems if this were so. That said, I haven't used the -ui
> option in some time - I simply hide the stack on preOpenStack and I've
> got a nice faceless app. Obviously you could pass a commandline option
> to hide or not, which would let you run the app interactively if
> desired.

Sorry, I misspoke: it's not that you can no longer run LC standalones in 
command-line mode; but what has I believe gone is the ability to run without 
attempting to create a graphic user interface, by invoking the app from the 
command line with the -ui flag.

If I've just missed something, I'll be delighted, but as far as I can tell 
this is the case.

I create a simple app which if it finds that the environment = "command line" 
does some things and then quits.

If I build a standalone with this, using Rev 3.5, and launch it from the 
command line:
- on Mac with no parameters it opens in the normal way, and I can interact 
with it and quit it using the default menu.
- on Mac with -ui nothing appears in the dock or on the screen, it does the 
requested task and quits.
- on a headless Linux box with no parameters I get the message "Can't open 
display"
- on a headless Linux box with -ui it does the requested task and quits.

If I build the same app using LC 4.6.4

- on Mac with no parameters it opens in the normal way, and I can interact 
with it and quit it using the default menu.
- on Mac with -ui the icon bounces in the dock for a long time, and then 
sticks there; there is no sign of the app working, and it has to be force quit.
- on a headless Linux box with no parameters I get the message "Can't open 
display"
- on a headless Linux box with -ui it hangs.

So it would be incorrect to say that the -ui flag has no effect on a 
standalone built with LC 4.6.4; but it doesn't have the useful effect that it 
used to.

Is there still a way to build a standalone using current LiveCode, that can 
operate on a Linux box that can only be accessed on the command line?

TIA,

Ben








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