Installing Livecode on Linux

I had to set up an new Linux box this week and came accross that time when to Install Livecode, again. Since we been asked this question before. How to install Livecode on Linux? I figure why not do an quick 1 minute video screen how to. Hopefully someone finds this useful. If not , oh well.

Java To Objective-C Translation

I came across an interesting little open source project today. J2ObjC which is an Java to iOS Objective-C translation tool and runtime. The tool enables Java code to be part of an iOS app. J2ObjC is an Google made tool and worth checking out. Even if just for experimentation.

More Info

Adding Borders to Images with Livecode

If your looking for an clean rect boarder within an image within Livecode you need to do so using groups. I found an great tutorial demo this off by  Jan Sckenkel of Quartam Software. Jan's example is way beyond just borders and is worth checking out.

His StyledImageView custom control article come in two parts

Part 1 StyledImageView custom control
Part 2 StyledImageView custom control(Part 2)

I suggest checking these out. It an really cool project demo with code. Great job Jan.

Livecode Control Margin fix for OSX

As of Mac OSX 10.7 or later the controls in Livecode are off. Off how you might ask, well the label is off on the buttons, Checkboxes, Radio Buttons etc. The label is not aligned to the control and makes the user experience feel incorrect. There an simple fix however, by setting the text margins to align back to center. These are the margins I found that work to get the appearance correctly align for these controls.

Livecode 5.1.0 or later

This is for the default object height.

Push Buttons: 2,12,2,13
Rectangle Button: 2,12,2,13
Combo Box: 6,8,2,13
Radio Buttons: 4,15,2,13
Check Box: 4,15,2,13
Option Menu: 2,14,2,13
Pulldown: 4,14,2,13

These margins can be set by script or the properties palette.

Open Source Livecode iOS Externals

I had made some externals to interface with Livecode and iOS. Some of which are now built into the IDE or do an small little things. I added these iOS externals for Livecode as free downloads with full source code to an backend webpage. I add an few new ones every once in an while.

I tried charging for my OSX Core Image External for Livecode OSX for only $50.00 and only an handful bothered buying and supporting it. It also seem to piss an ton of people off (I know because they emailed us.) that some one would spend months making an really cool addition to the Livecode tool, and then actually charge an small fee of $50.00 for there effort.  Specially when most of the Livecode 3rd party tools cost more than that, and do far less.

With that I am over selling externals for Livecode. I will share them as full open source and AS-IS. Maybe it will help someone learn or whatever.

Here an page to some limited open source iOS Livecode Externals we made, hope you enjoy. Link

10 Livecode features I want

Livecode is an great tool and does so many things out of the box its mind boggling. However as technology changes so does any development tool, and its need to support new things. Here my top ten wish list for Livecode (Not in order).

1. Full Cocoa Support For Mac.
2. Windows Mobile & Surface supported
3. Native Spell Checking (All platforms)
4. Multi-Channel Audio Player for all platforms (Like iOS and Android have)
5. Upgraded IDE (with Custom editor improvements, Scaleable window editor, one window design.)
6. Full Game Center (for both iOS & Mac)
7 Native Toolbars
8 Native Web Browser on Linux (The only livecode platform without one, why?)
9 Native Movie Player for every platform
10 64-bit for all desktop platforms

Get & Set Linux Theme with Livecode.

With Linux there many different options for window themes, based upon what distro you or your users are running. But using Livecode this is easy info to get and can be used to alter the window theme layout like the following Picture below alters the toolbar and window menu in unity theme of an Livecode built app.

To query this data is simple for Livecode use the Environment Variable $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP.

Use like such 

function getLixTheme

return $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

end getLixTheme

For the above if its unity I alter the window layout as show, else I alter nothing, and remove the unity toolbar and White in window menu.

Livecode: Copy File with Mac Sandbox & Mobile

If you find out RevCopyFile does not work. There an really simple fix, and one that used in mobile with iOS and Android with Livecode that can be used to fix this fast.

It super super simple. Use URL and binfile. like such

put URL ("binfile:" & tPath2File) into URL ("binfile:" & tPath2CopyLoc)

The Variables

tPath2File is the var that holds the path to the location of the file to copy.

tPath2CopyLoc is the var that holds the path to the location to copy the file to.

It works and does not require the use of anything like applescript, VB script or shell. Also it supported with iOS, Android, Sandbox Mac Apps, and all the Livecode supported platforms.