Sharing widgets (was Re: Type on an angle)

[Peter TB Brett]

On 22/11/2016 16:03, Paul Dupuis wrote:
> Could someone from the Mothership (i.e. LiveCode) weigh in on where
> people should publish LCB widgets?
>
> If Kevin really wants a 1000 widgets, then LiveCode really should
> designate an "official" place to put them or at least put links to them
> (if not the actual widgets themselves). As has been illustrated in this
> thread, some people want to host their widgets themselves and other want
> a place to upload them to, so both should be supported.
>
> I have no preference for whether this is a board on the Forum or the
> Sample Stacks or a web based repository or where ever, but before lots
> of widgets organically get deposited all over everywhere, where would
> LiveCode like them placed?

Hi Paul,

For LiveCode 8, the original intention was that there would be an 
"extension store" area on the main website.  The idea was that it would 
provide a searchable index of LiveCode Builder extensions, with 
associated documentation, guides, examples, etc.  The IDE would know how 
to hook into the extension store.  It would take care of downloading and 
updating extensions for use in your apps, as well as publishing the 
extensions that you create.

Unfortunately, this ran into a few problems, and around November 2015 
the decision was made to drop the extension store feature from the 
LiveCode 8 release and focus on the other elements.  There were quite a 
few other things that didn't make the cut; for example, LiveCode 8.0 was 
originally planned to include the Objective C and Java FFI elements that 
we're currently working on in the Infinite LiveCode project.

At the moment, unfortunately, we don't have any concrete plans or 
timescale for resuming the extension store project -- which I think 
would deliver what several people are asking for.  Maybe there's an 
opening here for someone to deliver a "LiveCode extensions hub" website 
of their own?

If you're developing an open source widget or library, I personally 
would recommend creating a git repository for each extension you create 
-- not necessarily on GitHub, but anywhere that suits -- and storing 
your widget's files in it with roughly the same layout we use for the 
widgets we ship in LiveCode.  You could then start a thread about your 
widget on the LCB forum, or maybe post release announcements on this 
mailing list.

It would be very easy for people to install the widget, because most of 
the git hosting sites let you just download a zip of the files in the 
repository.  Unzip them, open the .lcb file in the extension builder, 
hit 'Package' and 'Install' -- done.

I don't think there's any official "best way to distribute widgets" 
guideline from LiveCode-the-company right now.  For myself, I'm enjoying 
seeing the various approaches that people are taking, and seeing what 
works and what doesn't.

                                 Peter

-- 
Dr Peter Brett <peter.brett at livecode.com>
LiveCode Technical Project Manager

lcb-mode for Emacs: https://github.com/peter-b/lcb-mode