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LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

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Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#11

Post by betamaxthetape »

LiveCode can import HyperCard stacks. You'll need to use LiveCode version 6, since the HyperCard import functionality has been broken in LiveCode 7 onwards, but you can import a HyperCard stack using LiveCode 6, save the project in LiveCode's file format, and continue in a recent version of LiveCode.

HyperTalk and LiveCode aren't 100% compatible (probably around 80%, less if you used a lot of XCMDs since they aren't supported), but if you have an old stack you want to modernise, LiveCode is a great and affordable (it's GPLv3, with a commercial offering if you need to publish closed source projects) way to do it.

The best resource[1] on converting a HyperCard stack to LiveCode is by Jacqueline Landman Gay of HyperActive Software[2]. I believe HyperActive can also do consulting and conversion work for HyperCard stacks to LiveCode.

[1] https://www.hyperactivesw.com/mctutorial/rrintro.html

[2] https://www.hyperactivesw.com/index.html

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#12

Post by JoblessWonder »

I'll take any opportunity to ask HN what sort of "Hypercard" like options are out there to get kids into programming. I still have many memories of creating my own "Choose Your Adventure" type game and having the other kids in my class be amazed at what I was able to create. It really stuck with me.

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#13

Post by milansuk »

Every time when someone opens a dialog and write small script into it I wonder how does this work for large/complex project? Normally we have a file(s) with many functions so we can search/replace across all of them. This is a problem with many today's productivity tools as well. Looks splendid until it becomes large. Any solution?

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#14

Post by paleogizmo »

JoblessWonder wrote: post #12

I'll take any opportunity to ask HN what sort of "Hypercard" like options are out there to get kids into programming. I still have many memories of creating my own "Choose Your Adventure" type game and having the other kids in my class be amazed at what I was able to create. It really stuck with me.

I'd probably say pygame which repl.it now has support for. It's pretty slick and works on a crappy school ChromeBook. For "regular" gui stuff I'd say PySimpleGUI (see my earlier comment above/below).

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#15

Post by bjelkeman-again »

JoblessWonder wrote: post #12

I'll take any opportunity to ask HN what sort of "Hypercard" like options are out there to get kids into programming. I still have many memories of creating my own "Choose Your Adventure" type game and having the other kids in my class be amazed at what I was able to create. It really stuck with me.

My neighbours kids use https://scratch.mit.edu/

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#16

Post by analog31 »

mordechai9000 wrote: post #10
paleogizmo wrote: post #5

In the spirit of HN contrarian comments, I'd say the closest thing spiritually to a modern-day HyperCard is PySimpleGUI: https://github.com/PySimpleGUI Previously the closest thing to HyperCard was WinForms, which PSG borrows heavily from. PSG is probably the fastest way for anyone moderately familar with python to throw together an ugly-but-servicable GUI program and I reach for it when I'm in a hurry. The two trick…

It's been awhile since I've messed with a GUI in python, so I did quick image search to see just how ugly it is. And it actually looks very serviceable. A bit utilitarian, perhaps, but not too bad. I was expecting much worse, like the old Tk dialogs. And judging by the variety of examples I found, it can be themed to some degree. My only problem - and what has driven me to use web apps in the past - is the difficulti…

Something I've learned in my old age is that merely ugly is still better than anything I'm likely to come up with myself. If something threatens to be interesting enough to distribute, the marketeers will never let me decide how it's going to look anyway. For the work that I do, not having to think about layout or aesthetics at all is a time saver with virtually no downside.

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#17

Post by cortesoft »

betamaxthetape wrote: post #11

LiveCode can import HyperCard stacks. You'll need to use LiveCode version 6, since the HyperCard import functionality has been broken in LiveCode 7 onwards, but you can import a HyperCard stack using LiveCode 6, save the project in LiveCode's file format, and continue in a recent version of LiveCode. HyperTalk and LiveCode aren't 100% compatible (probably around 80%, less if you used a lot of XCMDs since they aren't…

Oh man, I will have to try this. I have a TON of stacks that I made as a kid, would be fun to play around with them in a better environment than SheepShaver.

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#19

Post by mmphosis »

emmanueloga_ wrote: post #6

looks more of a modern day visual basic no? (no snark, VB was cool!)

From a glance, it looks like it has the better features from either of HyperCard: message passing between "objects" vs. the class hierarchy, and VisualBasic: timers vs. the idle message, floating properties box vs. the dialog box.

It would be good if it has an option/property for resizeable windows "stacks" with some of the auto-resizing, alignment, and guides like Xcode - maybe it does, I get an error every time I attempt to login to LiveCode. "Critical mass" in user communities would be the killer feature, too bad the LiveCode App doesn't come by default with every new iPhone.

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#20

Post by peckrob »

emmanueloga_ wrote: post #6

looks more of a modern day visual basic no? (no snark, VB was cool!)

I was thinking the same thing. Man I miss VB6.

For rapidly prototyping an idea, I have yet to find anything that was as good as VB6. Drag a button, write code. Want to change things about the button? Use properties, that live update the GUI without recompiling. It was so simple that a reasonably intelligent person could grasp it in an afternoon, but in the hands of a capable developer could do some very impressive things.

It was also a fun game to hunt for OCX controls that you could use in things that were downloaded or came on random disks or CDs.

I really feel like VB6 was the peak of that development model and we've been moving away from it since. And I get some of the reasons why (just look at the mess that comes from trying to do anything with Xcode storyboards and version control.) But for just rapidly trying out an idea, I have yet to find anything anywhere that was as good as VB6 was.

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