Pi Digital wrote:
> I had posted this originally to the dev-livecode list but I thought
> (accurately) I wouldn’t get a reponse from that.
Yep, the dev list has been more or less retired since LC went open
source. I'm not sure why it's still even up, except that a few people
wanted it when they last asked if it should remain. So it's running, but
few read it. This list is a good choice.
> I currently have a client breathing heavily behind me because I can’t
> supply what they need. And by now I should be able to. My competitors,
> they’re new suppliers, are able to.
Happens all the time. I've formed relationships with others employing
complimentary skills and tooling for that purpose, bringing their
specialties on board for things outside of my core services.
And sometimes the project as a whole is sufficiently outside of what I
do that I just refer the client to another qualified professional.
No one does everything. Relationships bridge the gaps the
cross-training or interest haven't yet filled.
It's a big world, and software is eating it. Lots of opportunity for
nearly any specialty or mix of specialties.
> I would be trying to fix the LC issues with HTML deployment myself
> if I wasn’t so bogged down with the workarounds on top of workarounds
> that are so messing with my head.
When LC's HTML export was first announced, I read up on Emscripten and
how it works. Impressive for certain things, but when the result is
running a scripting language inside of a canvas object interpreted by
another scripting language, I figured I'd stick with brushing up my JS.
I know at least one developer who has been using it profitably for a
very specialized service. I'm glad for him. But my own needs are in a
different field, with a different market, and working closer to the
browser engine is a better fit for my own work.
Similarly, I used to use LC for systems administration, until I learned
bash. I can get the work done with LC, but I can get it done more
quickly with the language designed specifically for that niche.
LC's sweet spot is xplat desktop GUIs, where it's unbeatable. It's a
good contender for mobile apps, and as a server tool*. Personally, I
don't even think about HTML export, even though I helped fund the
project to see whee it might go.
And even though I spend some time in JS and bash, much of that work has
at least some LC mixed in along the way. There's always some GUI tool,
or some text processing for which awk feels awkward. Lots of choices,
combined and recombined as needed.
LC is nice, but it's not every language. There are hundreds, with more
each year, because each is contributing a unique mix of strengths the
others don't have.
Back in the day I used to even write object store systems in LC (think
MondgoDB scaled down for shared-hosting CGI). Not bad, and on two
projects I still use it, but for new work I'm more inclined spin up a
VPS and install Mongo or Couch.
Same with server management. I started down the DIY road with an
LC-based system and some clever (if I do say so myself <g>) use of the
bash "expect" program. Fun and all, but ultimately a lot of work to
handle every edge case or new capability. And all the while Ansible is
sitting there waiting to be used by those who need a daemonless option,
or go old-school with a few bash scripts.
You know how much I enjoy and value LiveCode. But I don't use it for
everything. I use it where it's the best choice for the task at hand.
* RE server use: This is one area where I feel LiveCode's potential has
yet to be fully realized by the world. Consider Ruby or Python: fine
languages, but rarely used as CGIs before Rails and Django. Now Ruby on
Rails has grown to such an audience that it's almost single-handedly
justified returning to CGI in many shops. LiveCode performs roughly on
par with both of them, but with chunk expressions - most of what we need
to do on servers is text manipulation, and for that LC rocks!
Our community is blessed with Ralf Bitter's tremendously excellent
revIgniter framework. Modeled on WebIgniter, it's an excellent toolkit
for a great many tasks.
But the PHP world has more than one framework. Same with Python.
I'd like to believe that as we build out great server apps with LC, out
of this activity will emerge new and useful libraries, tools, and
frameworks that can help the rest of the world come to appreciate the
benefits of scripting in LiveCode.
Same with streaming desktop apps, so easy in LC, so valuable to users,
so underutilized...
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems
Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
____________________________________________________________________
ambassa...@fourthworld.com http://www.FourthWorld.com
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