

Ask HN: Is anyone using LiveCode? - airfoil

http:&#x2F;&#x2F;livecode.com&#x2F;<p>This looks like a compelling solution for cross-platform development. The scripting language is a bit verbose but it looks capable. I&#x27;ve skimmed the user guide and it&#x27;s fairly extensive. I feel like I could whip something up pretty quickly. I&#x27;m hoping to play around with LiveCode if ever get some spare time.<p>I&#x27;m curious about other people&#x27;s experiences with LiveCode. I&#x27;m mostly interested in whether there was a productivity gain over something like Haxe&#x2F;OpenFL, C++&#x2F;Qt, or Python&#x2F;Kivy. I&#x27;d like to target desktop and mobile and LiveCode appears to be a good choice.
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ColinCera
I worked with LiveCode a few years ago (it was called Revolution back then),
adding features to an existing warehouse management system, and found it to be
kind of a pain in the ass. It wasn't _terrible_ , but using it was not an
experience I care to ever repeat.

What would you want to build with it? Based on the alternatives you list, I'm
guessing you're looking to develop games or applications with a non-
traditional user interface. If that's the case, then I suggest looking at QML
& Qt Quick — it's a better and more productive platform than any of your
listed options, IMO.

OTOH, if you're looking to develop platform-native-looking productivity apps
for both desktop and mobile, none of these are especially good choices, but
LiveCode might be the best of a bad lot. (QML _would_ be better, except it
currently doesn't look or feel native on mobile — that's supposed to change in
the next release for Android, but for iOS it's going to continue to utterly
suck for at least another 6-9 months, if I understand their development
roadmap correctly.)

~~~
airfoil
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I'm building a game/simulation so I don't need a
"native" UI. I've played with QML a bit and it's very nice to work with. I've
also discovered that PyQt5 can be deployed to mobile so the combination of
PyQt and QML might be the best of all worlds for me (I love Python).

Based on your reply it looks like LiveCode doesn't provide a productivity
advantage over Qt/QML. What was a pain in the ass about LiveCode/RunRev?

~~~
ColinCera
It's a strange language and strange framework. Not in a good way, where after
you've been using it awhile you start to appreciate it, but in a bad way,
where the more you use it the more annoyed you get.

A few examples, working from slightly hazy memory…

You can't just say

    
    
       foo.height = boo.height
    

You have to say something like

    
    
       set the height of field "foo" to the height of field "boo"
    

Instead of

    
    
       x = 5
    

You write

    
    
       put 5 into x
     

And so on.

There's no advantage to the LiveCode language, except perhaps for small
children; it's just stupidly verbose.

It's not object-oriented, you can't define classes and instantiate objects.
(Some people have tried to hack together object-like facilities, but those are
non-standard and cumbersome.)

Everything (i.e., most things) is either a field or a button. Do you have a
listbox in your UI? You don't refer to it as a listbox — there's no control
called listbox — you refer to it as "field 'listbox'" — a minor irritant, but
when there are dozens of such minor irritants, it adds up.

I gather there are thousands of happy LiveCode developers, so obviously my
opinion is not gospel, but I do not envy LiveCode developers _at all_.

