mwieder wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 9:27 pm
WordPress is a very comprehensive server-based CMS. What could LC's HTML5 export provide that WP doesn't out of the box?
That's easy - a demonstration of eating our own dogfood.
Should they also send their emails from their own custom email client written in LC? Write the documentation in their own word processor made with LC? Do their accounting in a double-entry system made with LC? Handle version control in their own custom VCS?
At what point is it a better message to demonstrate an awareness of ROI?
Each of those I listed are things I've seen folks build with LC. And for the purposes they were built, they're awesome. But that's the thing: just because you CAN do something doesn't make it the best choice.
Each of those real-world cases were tailored for specific niches, specialized vertical-market needs so narrow it would have been cost-prohibitive to write them in C, C++, Java, or most other choices.
LC makes it a snap to build great verticals. And it's among the very best choices for verticals. But generic needs tend to be addressed by large, well-funded companies who focus on that market. They often do quite well - but WordPress isn't in the desktop app-dev business, and it's users aren't expecting them to be.
A good CMS is a lot of work. Check out the WP scheme just to see what that one corner looks like. Then you need a templating language, roles, review workflows, and so much more. And after several person-years of effort, you'd have something satisfyingly close to WP, but not compelling, because everyone's already using WP.
That's a very expensive calling card.
When I was starting out I wrote a letter to one of the senior engineers on the SuperCard team, proudly noting that I had written the letter in a word processor I'd written in SuperCard. He liked my letter, and eventually I formed a good partnership with the owners of the product. But it wasn't because of my custom word processor, merely my enthusiasm.
I abandoned my word processor just a few months later, because there are so many good one it just didn't make sense to build yet another.
If LC Ltd's external communications had such unusual needs that a custom CMS made sense, I'd be right there with you. I've built CMSes in LC, so I know how valuable they can be for specialized needs (the most feature-rich was for a decision support tool for pediatric emergency specialists - talk about vertical! <g>).
But all LC needs to do with their main site is what WP handles well, so there's not much upside to replicating several person-years of work just to put up a web site.
I don't think it's a mistake to show that they have awareness of what provides ROI and what doesn't, Given the uncommonly high expense of just the core mission -- deploying to nearly every major platform -- I'd be more concerned if they were writing their own versions of generic software in any category.
A "this website made with LiveCode" logo.
An example of how easy it is to export a stack to a website. Isn't that the point of the HTML5 drive in the first place?
I can't help but see the lack of the flagship webpage *not* being developed in LiveCode as a sign of failure. And I can't believe I'm alone in that.
True, a lot of people have much enthusiasm about things for other people to do, but little experience covering payroll for more than a dozen specialists, or writing all the components presumed easy.
