Business Application Framework

Martin Koob mkoob at rogers.com
Fri Aug 14 11:09:17 EDT 2015


Monte Goulding wrote
>  People I have worked on projects with using lcVCS like Trevor and Martin
> seem to love being about to review their change history etc. Martin didn’t
> have any version control experience and now works largely on his own but
> continues to find it helpful. Trevor simply wasn’t interested in working
> with anyone else unless he had version control.

My introduction to version control was through using lcVCS.  I have a fairly
complex Mac OS X application based on the glxApplicationFramework that has
12 mainstacks including my program stack which itself has 26 substacks.  
Version control prior to using lcVCS consisted of saving backups in numbered
folders.  Tracking changes involved writing notes for each version in text
files.  This was getting unwieldy and time consuming.

Using lcVCS has been a game changer. I can go back and see change history
and even go back and load older versions of the application from the
repository.  I use bitbucket to keep track of bugs and features I am
planning.  There I can write notes there as I work on the issue then when I
commit the changes to the repository the note I write as part of the commit
is added to the issue. 


Monte Goulding wrote
> The project from my perspective has two parts. lcVCS is the engine that
> manages the file format and is GPL. Then I have an IDE plugin and command
> line interface that I was intending to sell. The plugin provided some cool
> git integration into the IDE and the command line interface provided
> something for git hooks to rebuild your stacks when you merge or checkout
> and to export them asynchronously after an IDE save of the stack so you
> don’t interrupt your workflow with stackFile exports. 

The IDE plugin is the real gem.  The automatic export of the stacks after an
IDE save means you don't really have to change your workflow.   I use
SourceTree to view the repository and commit the files to the repository. 
Once I make changes to the application and save them I can see the changes
in source tree as uncommitted changes.   This allows me to see all of the
changes I am making in one place rather than click through the multiple
script editor tabs and try to remember what I did 2 hours ago.   On top of
this you can see the history of committed changes right in the LiveCode
script editor.  Hovering over the line numbers you can see the note that was
entered with the commit along with the author's name.  An added button in
the script editor allows you to view the history for that script with the
differences between the old script and revised script.  

I primarily work alone but I do occasionally hire Monte to do some coding
for me for specific features.  lcVCS allows me to follow as Monte makes
changes and see how those integrate into my application and keep my local
stacks up to date with his changes. Even if I was working totally alone on
this I could not see myself going back to not using a VCS.   

I think that lcVCS would be beneficial to LiveCode developers in teams or
working alone and for developers at a range of levels of expertise.  I am
still not that versed in VCS and was quite impressed with my self when I
made a branch to work on a new feature and merged it back into the main
branch. 


Monte Goulding wrote
> The market for such a thing is quite small compared to the work that goes
> in so the deal to sell it to LiveCode where it would become a regular part
> of the IDE was appealing but it didn’t come off. At this stage if I were
> to get stuck into it again I’d like to merge both projects and release
> under GPL but I’d need some financial backing to afford the time...

So there seems to be some excitement about lcVCS.  We can't expect Monte to
work on this out of the goodness of his heart.  There has to be funding to
pay for his time to develop it and even make a profit on it.  

l don't understand the reluctance of software developers to pay for
software.  I have recently started playing "Boom Beach" for free and I could
continue to play for free forever.  However I paid $12.00 to purchase some
'diamonds' to progress faster in the game.  The reason I did this and do for
other games periodically is I know there is are developers spending time to
create this software and with the goal of making a living off of it.  I am
in the same albeit much smaller boat than they. I too am spending my time
developing software that I want other people to see as valuable and pay me
for it so I can make a living.   

Now SuperCell with more resources and much larger user base, is in a
different  league than the Monte's or the Malte's of the LiveCode community
or even than the LiveCode team.  So it is even more necessary for members of
the community to support their work financially.   

Monte has not charged for lcVCS to this point but I will happily pay him for
it when there is an opportunity to do so.  

His original plan to provide the lcVCS engine as GPL and then charge for the
IDE plugin and command line interface. I would be happy to pay for the
plugin given the value it adds and time it saves.  Would people who want
version control for LiveCode be willing to commit up front and pay for the
lcVCS plugin or some other payment option or commit in a funding campaign?  
If there are not enough people willing to commit the funds this all becomes
a moot discussion.

Martin Koob



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