Bug 20117: new rc2 sets a backdrop, and preferences for same

[Richmond Mathewson]

On 7/19/17 2:32 pm, Mark Waddingham via use-livecode wrote:
> On 2017-07-19 13:25, Richmond Mathewson via use-livecode wrote:
>> "the question is this:"
>>
>> How many new users of LiveCode are actually "brand new" in the sense
>> that they have NO computer programming
>> experience at all?
>
> A significant enough percentage to make it worthwhile a vector to 
> consider.

How many of those brand new users are going to start teaching themselves 
LiveCode at home, and how many are going
to go through a guided course in LiveCode in some kind of classroom setting?

In the latter case I jalouse decisions about whether to use a backdrop 
and so on would be taken by the instructor rather than left to the 
pupils/students.

For instance, on ALL the computers in my school I have the textSize in 
the scriptEditor jacked up to 18 using Charcoal.ttf on Macs and Ubuntu 
Bold.ttf on
Xubuntu, and with the "classic" colourisation.

The biggish, bold font in the scriptEditor is useful (for me) in that I 
can sit in the middle of a room with computers lining the walls
and talk to indvidual kids about their scripting without shifting my b** 
too much.

Richmond.
>
>> How many brand new users are going to be "freaked out" when the
>> desktop "they know and love" vanishes without a particularly obvious
>> way to make it reappear without quitting LiveCode?
>
> That is a very good question, and one which will hopefully answer 
> itself from testing it out.
>
> The important point here is perhaps that 'discovery' of how to 
> configure these things might need to be improved (e.g. hints / 
> explanations etc.) should it turn out to be a problem.
>
>> Is this 'reappearance' of an enforced backdrop (Yes, Sports fans, it
>> came up way back) a 'fudge' to keep people who are rooting for a
>> unified tiddley-pom
>> (what's it called?) of your collective back?
>
> No it is not a replacement for anything which might happen in the future.
>
> Indeed, as things from the future don't exist *now*, it can't be a 
> replacement or fudge or any other way you might want to express it.
>
> It is working with what we have right now and trying things out to see 
> if they make what we have right now, better (for appropriate 
> definitions of 'better' - in this case, does it make LiveCode 'better' 
> for starting out from scratch).
>
> Warmest Regards,
>
> Mark.
>