Helping newcomers anticipate that standalones can't save to themselves

[Peter M. Brigham]

Would it be possible for the standalone builder to automatically create an .exe stack that opens invisibly and does only one thing: opens what the user has presented as the mainstack? Then things would work exactly the same as in the IDE and changes made to the mainstack  would be saved. Some attention would have to be paid to not messing up the message path, I guess, but it seems feasible on the face of it. (Of course, lots of things seem feasible when you don't really know what you're talking about….)

-- Peter

Peter M. Brigham
pmbrig at gmail.com
http://home.comcast.net/~pmbrig


On Aug 15, 2014, at 10:13 AM, Richard Gaskin wrote:

> One of the most frequent frustrations new users have with LiveCode is the moment they realize the standalone they've built can't save changes to its stacks.
> 
> Often this happens very late in the process, just after building the standalone to test out the work they've been doing, and suddenly everything that worked so well in the IDE stops working, with no readily discernible cause.
> 
> So they come into the forums or this list, and folks mention everything from refactoring their work to use an anchor window (or "splash" screen) pattern, or completely rewrite everything to use an external text file or database or what have you.
> 
> The LiveCode User Guide's section on building standalones includes a bold purple callout box explaining this (p 299), but it's a testament to the usability of LiveCode that apparently a great many people can use it productively for many weeks without ever cracking the User Guide.
> 
> Clearly something more is needed.  What should that be?
> 
> Putting a note in the Standalone Builder might help, but if they've gotten that far it's too late, they probably have to start rewriting things.
> 
> How can we help users anticipate IN ADVANCE that no OS will allow their executable to write to itself, so they can write useful things from the very start?
> 
> -- 
> Richard Gaskin
> Fourth World Systems
> Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
> ____________________________________________________________________
> Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com
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