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LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

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Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#22

Post by coolestuk »

emmanueloga_ wrote: post #6

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

The cross-platform technology behind Livecode has been in use and in development since before Windows 95.

http://metacard.com/

The product known as Metacard and was bought out and enhanced to create Livecode.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaCard

I've been using it for 20 years, creating apps for Windows, MacOS, Linux, iPhone and Android.

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#23

Post by coolestuk »

milansuk wrote: post #13

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?

Calls to handlers/functions (usually) pass through what is called "the message path", going from object -> grouped objects -> card -> substack -> stack. This path is also enhanced by frontscripts and backscripts (code placed in the path either before the initial object or behind the stack).

So well-organized code does not have to be scattered among 100s of objects, but is instead centralized and placed in the most appropriate location.

In 2016 "script only stacks" were introduced. The normal stack is a binary file containing code and GUI elements. The script only stack is a text file, meaning it can be diffed and put under normal version control.

https://livecode.com/script-only-stacks/

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#24

Post by nickloewen »

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.

Recently I've had great fun playing with MakeCode for the micro:bit, mostly programming this little robot: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4575

Also very fun is MakeCode Arcade, which makes it super easy create lo-fi sprite-based video games, which you can play in your browser or on a dedicated handheld console: https://arcade.makecode.com

Both work like Scratch, which is another great option. When I played with Scratch as a teenager, though, I remember being frustrated that it wasn't just designed to make programming easy, but also to "teach programming to kids"--which meant that it was easy to make games, but basically impossible to "take the training wheels off" and do more serious tasks, because there was no way to access the filesystem or the network or connect with any other software. That was almost ten years ago, so maybe this complaint is out of date--but it does get to what I like about the micro:bit, which is that it's super simple and fun to program, but still lets you make "real" things.

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#25

Post by badsectoracula »

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…

How is the closest thing to HyperCard when you need to type code to make the GUI? In HyperCard you draw the interface as if you were using a paint program, you create simple databases "living" inside the stack just by placing input fields around and you create links by placing buttons that you can make links to the other cards just by visiting them. You can make presentations, e-books, simple databases like phone books, recipe books, etc without writing a single line of code. And if you want to write some code the language is very simple and "readable" with very simple approachable commands and a GUI that 'knows' about it.

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#27

Post by badsectoracula »

peckrob wrote: post #20
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 th…

You can try Lazarus[0], which is essentially an open source Delphi, itself being a more "serious" alternative to classic VB using a real native compiler and more robust language (Object Pascal).

It is more complicated than VB6, though nothing that can't be figured out by playing around with it and the included examples (and IMO it has by far the best visual form designer - placing controls in a freeform way and then "tying" them together with anchors with padding, etc so that they resize properly feels much more intuitive than using layout managers like in other toolkits that emphasize more on making stuff with code and have WYSIWYG editors as an afterthought at best).

Sadly there isn't any open source tool that i know that approaches classic VB's simplicity (though when it comes to that i am a bit more of a VB4 fan - i think by the time VB5 was introduced, the UI got a bit too complicated for the "form editor with a scripting language attached" that classic VB was at its core).

[0] https://www.lazarus-ide.org/

Re: LiveCode is a modern day HyperCard (2019)

#29

Post by tomcam »

ben_w wrote: post #7
emmanueloga_ wrote: post #6

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

I was thinking the same, though also thinking about REALbasic (now known as Xojo; I’ve not used it since 2007).

Xojo is pretty slick, but 1) LiveCode crushes it in the forms design department, and 2) No Android support. They have been promising it since just after John Quincy Adams was elected, though it appears to be in beta.
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