Hi.
As someone proficient in ordinary procedural languages, you are stumbling over
the inability to accept that a programming language can be so english-like.
Most new users like yourself find the concept childish and unprofessional,
rather than opaque and unintelligible. This is good news, I think.
It will require quite a bit of unlearning, but once you get it, I guarantee you
will never look back. Make an address book or a metric/english converter. These
seemingly trivial tasks are anything but, at least to a beginner, and if you
can get through them, will put you over that conceptual barricade. You will
appreciate that the enormous internal overhead required of the parsers and
interpreters in LiveCode takes the place of the enormous internal overhead
required of human beings in C++.
Had you never heard of Hypercard during your long travels?
Craig Newman
-----Original Message-----
From: Nigel Soden <nig...@amglighthouse.co.za>
To: use-livecode <use-livecode@lists.runrev.com>
Sent: Thu, Dec 27, 2012 3:25 am
Subject: Learning LiveCode
Folks
I'm sitting in the confession box, hidden from the view to the confessors.
(haha).
I've been in this game since the days of the first Sinclair computer, remember
it. The ZX81. At the time I was learning to fly and progressing to become a
Commercial Pilot. Then mine eyes beheld this beauty, ZX81. I was to captivated
by this 'thing'. I dissected everything about this wondrous machine, as for the
flying that took a plunge as I was diagnosed with a heart murmur which put a
full stop of ever reaching the commercial or as it it better known in aviation
circle, my A.L.T.P.
What was I left to do. I had spent 7 years and countless amount of paper money
that I was left broken both physically and emotionally. But quietly sitting on
my desk at home which by now the ZX81 hd grown to the ZX Spectrum. I got a job
as a Hi-Fi Salesman and in the evening I indulged myself in this wondrous piece
of electronic device learning everything about it.
Lets move on. So, today I'm now a developer, learnt countless computer
language,
loved some, hated others. But my interest for programming has never waned. Ran
a
small software house for many years, collapsed 3 time from over stress but
never
ever lost the desire to create program's. Like learning music, it gets better
the more you play.
Three years from now I'm at the legal age of retirement. The current language I
use to earn a living is C# and ALL its affiliated friends, .Net, Prism, etc,
etc. And I HATE every bit of it. Whatever the youngsters of today claim they
can do in C# has been done under other camouflaged names and languages. OOPS.
What a farce... It's overused, oversold and overrated. There I SAID IT. I HATE
OOPS. I'm not saying that it has no good points for it has some really clever
ways of dealing with problems. But it's SO over exposed it's becoming
sickening.
There is no ways I'm going to wait until I'm 63 before retiring, so for the
last
year I have been researching various languages that'll fit my future
requirements as this coming year is my last year I will ever work for a big
corporation. Basically what Im saying, I'm retiring, but with the current
economy being as it is I would have to supplement my income.
After many months of research I stumbled on LiveCode downloaded it and played
around with it and liked what I saw and what it's user base and it's
interaction
amongst the users and developers.
I'm in the process of developing an application for my son that'll run on
iPad's
and later on Android units. I do a lot of research on biblical history and also
currently developing an application for that as well. So all in all I'm
enjoying
it and looking forward to making a little cash on the sideline.
BUT, this is what is frustrating me. WHY AM I FINDING IT SO DIFFICULT TO
UNDERSTAND THE FLIPPING LANGUAGE. I keep tripping up on the explanation in the
multitudes of examples. for example.
Create a calendar pane in a given stack using the
function:
I think I sort of understand, and i'm sure I will reach that goal. Now hear my
confession. It takes me roughly 3 months to get into a language and another
couple of months to becoming proficient in it but in LiveCode, geez.. it's like
taking for ever. Why could they not stay with standard computer technology
terms. You gonna have to learn them sometime. And for those of you that write
articles and third party add-ons, please, please supply copious amount of
examples. I know some do but in general I find them rather lacking.
To date what I see in LiveCode satisfies my needs and is well within my budget.
I will continue with it as I do believe it'll be around for quit some time.
Living in South Africa makes it expensive for us to travel around the world and
would love to attend a conference but that is way beyond my means. It appears
as
If I'm the only developer in this country so I do rely a lot on various forums
and site from which to get answers. I cannot just pick up the phone and say,
'Hey!' what do I do here. For those of you that have helped me in the past, I
am
most grateful even thou I may not always reply as such or contribute currently.
On a final note. I have a couple of articles that I am working on and when I
have reached the level of satisfaction that a beginner to an expert can follow
then I'll post them.
Thanks for listening and hope you ALL have a good 2013.
P.S. Can I leave the confession box now?
_______________________________________________
use-livecode mailing list
use-livecode@lists.runrev.com
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription
preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
_______________________________________________
use-livecode mailing list
use-livecode@lists.runrev.com
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription
preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
