Sean-

My degree is in TV/stage production and digital design. I’ve built web sites 
(HTML, WordPress, LiveCode), produced/directed broadcast and streaming 
programs, and delivered custom software on Mac/PC/Web (using Director and 
Flash), and now Mac/PC/iOS/Android using LiveCode (because you’re right, the 
HTML5 port isn’t ready for primetime).

Anyone who thinks pixel perfection across mediums is possible has never worked 
on a web platform; this usually ends up being UI designers who only work in 
theoreticals. That InDesign file they mocked up might look great saved as a PDF 
or printed on a specific coated paper using Pantone inks, but those CMYK colors 
and Post Script fonts are rendered using RGB and WOFF in a web browser or 
desktop computer so they won’t look the same: and there’s not a damn thing you 
can do about it (short of making everything an image, but you still can’t 
make-up for the color gamut differences). The WYSWIG hacks that sufficed in the 
90s/00s to make things visually similar were always shoddy at-best creating 
hundreds of additional lines of code and won’t pass muster with current 
accessibility standards even if they did "work".

Fonts have ALWAYS been one of the most difficult parts of app development. 
Whether it’s getting legal fonts (the good ones aren’t cheap, and the cheap 
ones aren’t good), or cross-platform fonts (not every OS reads the same format, 
and not every font is available in multiple formats). The closest I’ve come has 
been to run some scripts when populating text fields to make sure they fit the 
dimensions allotted in the design. Text doesn’t fit in box? Reduce the fontSize 
by 1 until it does. Text doesn’t fill the space? Increase the fontSize by 1 
until it does. It’s a PITA, so I usually add this in at the end since the art 
department seems to have another “small change” along the way.

Programming isn't a science as much as an art. With your broadcasting 
background you understand that a projects aren’t “done” until the deadline: 
there is ALWAYS something else you would have tweaked if you had more time (2 
weeks?!?). But I get it: producers are generally unreasonable eggplant emojis 
that are notoriously difficult to please.

While LiveCode DOES require some if platform() conditionals, I can only imagine 
coding this in Swift and Java (even for a unicorn proficient in BOTH) would 
still take much longer and NOT give the pixel perfection you are referring to. 
I say “imagine” because I don’t know, and never had to learn, those languages 
since I could easily pick-up LiveCode from the various programming environments 
I’ve previously developed for. My copy of Microsoft Windows looks different on 
my iMac than it does on my Dell, and it wasn’t a fireable offense for the 
development team.

—Andrew Bell
_______________________________________________
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

Reply via email to