On 11/08/15 21:46, Peter M. Brigham wrote:
May be conducting a parents' night in which you demonstrate something simple
with livecode to show its ease of access and manageable learning curve, then
rope the kids in to show off what they have done, and finally summarize the
advanced projects that people have used it for. In my experience, mentioning
that LC powers the Landsat 7 satellite data collection enterprise usually gets
people to sit up and open their eyes. Lots of similar applications mentioned on
the LC website.
Right: with Wine and cheese.
Smashing idea!
Richmond.
-- Peter
Peter M. Brigham
pmb...@gmail.com
http://home.comcast.net/~pmbrig
On Aug 11, 2015, at 1:48 PM, Richmond wrote:
I am having a problem with a load of belligerent parents who seem quite unable
to understand
what LiveCode is. These parents work at the local Non-Ferrous Metals factory
and are highly skilled
engineers, but learnt their programming when I did (i.e. when the dinosaurs
were alive), and
need to be slapped with a description of the sort they can understand.
The truth of the matter is that almost all of them are probably about a
gazillion times better at FORTAN and Pascal than I ever was . . .
Saying things like "Hypercard on steroids" brings only blank looks as these
poor people, while
I was enjoying getting bogged down in HC in Carbondale, Illinois, were fighting
for survival during the mid-90s economic
disaster that affected post-Communist countries.
Now I came across this: http://www.metacard.com/wp1a.html
"Third generation includes most compiled languages, including older ones such
as Pascal, Fortran, C, BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), and
COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language), but also includes newer derivatives like
C++ and Java
"Fourth generation languages are the proprietary languages used to develop
database applications
"Scripting languages, like MetaTalk, Perl, ksh, Tcl, and Python, are most
similar to 4GLs,
but generally are even higher level and were designed to be general purpose tools
rather than specifically for dealing with databases "
which is the sort of 'guff' they will understand [Hey, as far as I am concerned, who
gives a "monkey's" -
does the job, normally marvellously] but only goes half way.
So . . . ?
Am I to describe LiveCode as:
1. A fifth generation language? and if so, how will I explain the difference
between that and 3rd and 4th G languages?
Directly scriptable objects?
No compiling nonsense?
2. Plastic bath toys? This will turn these people (with their kids!!!!) off
instanter.
3. Something else?
Being a retro sort of chap I just bought (!!!!!) /How to program C++/, second
edition, 1998 for the princely sum of 1 Euro . . . well, as far
as I'm concerned it IS worth having!
Now, on page 10 it has this to say:
"C++ . . . provides a number of features that "spruce up" the C language, but
more importantly, it provides capabilities for
/object-oriented programming/."
Which, from the point of view of a long-term LiveCode monomaniac (me) looks
fine until you start looking for buttons, fields
and so forth . . .
Anyway, the C++ is going to be my "bathroom book of the month" and we'll see
how far it gets me . . .
HOWEVER, I am still left with these stroppy parents who cannot quite understand
what the advantages of LiveCode over Pascal,
FORTRAN and C++ might possibly be for their pre-adolescent children, because,
while those kids might learn to program
Mickey Mouse guff with LC they will still have to learn a "Real Programming"
language when they are older [ this is when I have to
sit on my hands and count to ten].
Richmond.
_______________________________________________
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
_______________________________________________
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
