Ali Lloyd wrote:
I doubt we will be writing a whole new script editor from scratch in one go.
Wise, for all the reasons Joel talks about here (good link, Scott): <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html>
More likely we will replace individual elements with widgets (as has been done with the variables pane) to make sure all the components work as expected.
LiveCode 8's Builder language will be an exciting addition to the platform, at long last allowing the dev team to enjoy the same benefit the rest of us choose LiveCode for: not having to work in C++, able to use a high-level scripting language for much greater productivity.
With the IDE things are even better: it's already written in a high-level scripting language. Why not use LiveCode Script?
If we can't build a good text editor in LiveCode, what are any of us doing here?
Fortunately we can. Indeed LiveCode is an excellent tool to build such things with, as it is right now.
LiveCode Builder is a great alternative to C++, but there's no true need to replace LiveCode Script elements with new LiveCode Builder implementations.
Doing so merely overloads the already-laden v8 dev cycle, and worse it prevents backporting solutions to the product that is currently the company's sole source of revenue, v7. Conversely, everything written for v7 goes along for the ride seamlessly to v8, the clearly winning option for things already in script.
The ROI of writing things in LC Builder that might otherwise have required C++ is unquestionable. And similarly unquestionable is the benefit of using the current scripting language for things already written in the current scripting language.
Somewhere down the road there might be a reason to rewrite those, but right now the downsides seem so clearly outweighing the upsides on every level, from technical to revenue to marketing (do we really intend to convey the message that LiveCode can't be used to build a text editor?), it would seem optimal to just dive in an optimize what we have.
This thread began with a sober realization of the difficulty of estimation vs. actual delivery times. I'm a programmer too, so I appreciate the seductive attraction of greenfield projects; no one like working in other people's code. But most programming is exactly that, and as Joel points out it's extremely rare that a working system can benefit from a complete rewrite, when all that's needed are some optimizations and a very small number of new and rather discrete features.
-- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Systems Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web ____________________________________________________________________ ambassa...@fourthworld.com http://www.FourthWorld.com _______________________________________________ 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
