Set Script Limits in Standalones

[Richard Gaskin]

Bob Sneidar wrote:

 >> On Jan 27, 2015, at 07:56 , Ray <ray at linkit.com> wrote:
 >>
 >> As I recall there's a limit to the number of lines in a script
 >> which is set in a standalone.  I thought it was 16 lines.  This
 >> limitation, if it still exists, is not documented in the
 >> dictionary.  Does anybody know what it is or if it got removed
 >> with the advent of the community edition?
 >
 > I think the 16 line limit was for in line compilation, as in creating
 > a list of commands and executing them with a do command. I do not
 > think it means that every script in a standalone is limited to 16
 > lines, and I believe that limit has been removed anyway, or else
 > greatly increased.

The scriptLimits global property was originally invented to allow 
MetaCard to deliver a demo version with no time limit.  The limits were:

   10 executable statements with "do", "value" or "set the script of...."
   10 frontScripts
   10 backScripts
   50 libraries

Some were able to deliver complete working apps within those limits, but 
Dr. Raney felt it was still a good balance because sooner or later 
they'd get tired of the workarounds for such things and just get a license.

Since the concept of having arbitrary limits on utility for licensing 
purposes is incompatible with the GPL, the scriptLimits property was 
removed from the Community Edition on first release of that version (6.0 
if memory serves).

After review, it was also removed from the Commercial edition as of v6.7 
- here's the bug report on that, with Mark Waddingham's comment:

<http://quality.runrev.com/show_bug.cgi?id=11797>

     Having considered this for a while and based on feedback
     from yourselves and others I can confirm that we will be
     removing the scriptLimits from commercial in 6.7 onwards
     (and thus 7.0). This change should take effect in the next
     build after 6.7-dp-6 / 7.0-dp-8.


This is consistent with the design mandate of the two editions now that 
LiveCode is open source, in which if there are any differences at all 
they favor the Commercial so it represents a superset of Community features.

That said, RunRev is sincere about their commitment to open source, so 
Community is not "crippleware" at all:  both engines have complete 
feature parity across the board, with the only exceptions being 
Commercial features which may be incompatible with the GPL.  Currently 
these are limited to Oracle database connectivity (since Oracle's 
drivers are closed-source), and password-protected stacks (since 
concealing source is incompatible with the GPL's mandate for free and 
open sharing).

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  LiveCode Community Manager
  richard at livecode.org