Hi Richmond,
I wrote this some time ago:
http://www3.economy-x-talk.com/blog/2014/02/24/what-is-livecode/
Also, LiveCode really is a 4GL. Every 4GL has a specialisation. Some are
for managing databases, others for instructing cutting machines, and
again others for giving easy access to the API's of a GUI-based
general-purpose operating system. Sometimes, I think I might have found
a 5GL, but then I realise that essentially it still is 4GL.
I was going to write a definition for a 5GL, but now I'm thinking this
would be OT.
--
Best regards,
Mark Schonewille
Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering
Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer
KvK: 50277553
Installer Maker for LiveCode:
http://qery.us/468
Buy my new book "Programming LiveCode for the Real Beginner"
http://qery.us/3fi
LiveCode on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/runrev/
On 8/11/2015 19:48, 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.
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