LiveCode Forums.

My university has some programs to teach programming to K-12 kids - one teaches Java (!!). I told the instructors about the new open-source version of LiveCode. In my experience in teaching kids to program, they really want to send their work to friends and family - a functioning verison, not just screen shots. What is the best way to do this with LiveCode stacks? Would it be to build Mac and Win standalones and distribute those? Is there a better way it could be done in the future, e.g., a "player" so every stack a kid sends out doesn't have to be made into a standalone?

Hi RIchard,
Yes, this is done often. People use it when their stacks reside on a web server, it replaces using the Runrev plug-in (still have to download the stack).
The dictionary term is "go stack "yourStack.rev""
You will have to come up with a procedure for sorting out which stack they will launch (oh, just send them the url... ah, now can kids upload to a server?) and build the single standalone that carries out the go stack command.

Simon

Richard K. Herz wrote:What is the best way to do this with LiveCode stacks? Would it be to build Mac and Win standalones and distribute those? Is there a better way it could be done in the future, e.g., a "player" so every stack a kid sends out doesn't have to be made into a standalone?

I know of one developer who did a great job bulding a player app that not only ran things his student built, but could also share them over the 'net. Had built-in chat too, among other things. Perhaps you've heard of it: ReactorLab.

Seriously, you did some of the best work I've seen in this area. Adaping a subset of those ideas for what you're doing now for this k-12 audience seems a perfect fit, IMO.

Richard G., Dohh! You can tell I haven't worked on ReactorLab and SimzLab for a while. Thank you for the compliment. Yes, I guess that's a fairly easy way to do it. Kid sends link to standalone (on instructor's server) to grandma and tells her to download and run it, type in kid's username and click Go button. Then grandma sees current list of kid's work, clicks on one and the stack downloads and plays. If I don't find an example stack for instructors on revOnline, I'll work one up. I've been waiting for the open source edition to come out before I head up for a SoCal RUG (LUG now?) meeting, since $50 in gas and a few hours driving to visit you guys (last train leaves too early). Hope to see you next time. Thanks. Rich

Simon, Thanks for the suggestions. Regarding the revWeb browser plugin, while it's still posted on the web, it wasn't updated after the first version or two, and currently doesn't work in current versions of many (all?) browsers. Too bad! I thought it was a great idea. Maybe the open-source community can revive a modern version that works?

The kids I am currently teaching are running off standalones with the Community version for their friends.

by the way, for some slightly daft reason RunRev have crippled the Community version's ability to hive off IOS apps [because the Apple App Store won't permit GPL stuff]; but a quick hack in the
IOS cardScript of the standalone builder sorts that out for those who, on a Mac, wish to build IOS apps for their pupils.