[NEWBIE QUESTIONS] Need Your Advice

[rom101]

Hey All,

First post here and I was hoping you could help me with a couple of questions. I have wanted to learn to create apps for a very long time now and decided the Kickstarter project was my jumping in point. Now I need your help, so please bare with me and my rookie questions. My goal is to be completely setup and ready to create some cool apps and ebooks by the time the relaunch is ready.

1) I'm new to coding. Most I've done in the past is HTML and some javascript. I've played with Java and PHP, but haven't ever created anything on my own. Is there anything anyone suggests I start with as a good launching point into learning LiveCode? Is there something I should learn BEFORE I jump into LiveCode?

2) I plan on purchasing a Mac Laptop as I want to create mainly for Apple iOS. Any Specs I should make sure to have or things I should look for that will really benefit me in the long run with the new laptop?

I am so excited to get started and I'm sorry if these questions are answered elsewhere. If they are, please point me in the right direction.

[edgore]

I think that you can probably jump right into Livecode without any intermediate steps. I would recommend taking a look at the lessons section of the livecode site for some initial education - http://lessons.runrev.com

As far as the laptop goes, at least at the moment, there is not really much difference in the Livecode development experience between the various models. Livecode is fast on any modern Mac (I use 2011 Mac Mini and 2011 Macbook Air 11" without any problems) and memory has not been an issue for anything I ever wanted to do. Now, you might want an external monitor for more screen real estate at some point, but that will be possible no matter which Mac you buy.

As far as the new, refactored version coming in the Fall(ish), who knows. I am very confidant that performance will still be very good, but that's entirely based on my faith in RunRev based on previous experience as opposed to any certain knowledge.

[jacque]

The RR lessons are good, especially if you need a particular question or technique addressed. For an overall view of how LiveCode works, I suggest going through these stacks in order:

http://www.runrev.com/developers/lesson ... nferences/

They are a little dated now but still accurate (LiveCode used to be called "Revolution" and the stacks refer to it that way.) These stacks were created to help newcomers, they assume no prior knowledge, and they work their way through the concepts you need to know. Each one assumes you've seen the one before, which is why you should do them in order.

I'd do those first before the RR lessons. The RR lessons sometimes asume a certain level of knowledge you may not have yet if you are brand new to this.

And welcome -- a whole new world is about to open up for you.

[rom101]

Thank you for the great advice. Can't wait to begin. I feel a lot of pride being any to help fund the KickStarter campaign as I think LiveCode and RunRev is definitely worth it.

[Simon]

The above 2 resources are very good but the one that I rarely see mentioned is:
http://revonline2.runrev.com/
It contains many sample stacks made by LC users that you can take apart and play with.

Simon

[dunbarx]

What everybody said.

I recommend that you obtain two books. These are iconic resources for Hypercard, the progenitor of Livecode, and still provide a solid basis for learning either. In fact, these two books are the single holy grail missing in LiveCode. (who will deny it? Cummon, I dare you)

"The complete Hypercard 2.2. Handbook" by Danny Goodman.
"Hypertalk 2.2, the Book" by Winkler,Kamins and DeVoto

These are available here and there. I have many copies of the second, and will send you one if you pay the postage. Don't ask why I have so many.

LiveCode is a vast superset of Hypercard, and far more modern and powerful. But if you know HC, you already pretty much know LC. You would fast-read through Goodman, and use the other as you would the dictionary in LC. And they make handsome additions to your bookshelf.

Craig Newman

[magice]

I am completely self taught, and though there is still much I don't know, LC an this forum have done wonders for my coding ability. Since you are completely new to coding, What I would recommend is to read as much code as you can find. Go through old threads on this forum. You will find hundreds of sample stacks. Dissect them and experiment with them. The first step to learning to write code is learning to read it.

[FourthWorld]

What I would recommend is to read as much code as you can find. Go through old threads on this forum. You will find hundreds of sample stacks. Dissect them and experiment with them.

^ this.

Nothing is as powerful for learning as doing. Dive in. Rejoice in making mistakes, since mistake are how we learn. Have fun. Explore. Play.

[dunbarx]

What everyone else said.

Try to make a simple stack, perhaps a metric converter or an address book. Whatever. It does not have to be useful at all, in fact, as the authoring and coding effort is the only reason to spend the energy. How about a stack that tells you every single thing the mouse is doing, where it is, and at what time, and presents that information in a field. You would start by playing with such terms as "mouseEnter", mouseLeave", mouseWithin", "mouseMove", mouseLoc. See the dictionary, and add to this list. There are a lot of things you can fill in.

You will know you are hooked when you cannot wait to add a bit more functionality, or cannot sleep until you fixed a problem, or cannot rest until it works just so.

In fact, there are almost no stack ideas that are trivial enough that you will not endure quite a bit of both frustration and triumph. You will be surprised at how little things will confound you. The good news is that the community here is so eager to help that you will be inundated with ideas and examples every time you ask for help. Please do so.

But you have to do this yourself. The other good news is that after about 100 hours working on your little learning stacks, you will be surprisingly adept, and then you can move on to more and better stuff.

Craig Newman

[Simon]

Ah yes, Craig just mentioned something that Klaus (an admin here) has to say 5 times a day.
Look it up in the Dictionary!
Very very important.

Sometimes I take guess at a name of a function, type it in the dictionary to see if it's there. It's a great thing about a near English language. In the above example "I want to do something with the mouse", just type "mouse" in, "Have a graphic slide across the screen" try "move" or you want to build a clock... hmmm how about "time"?

Simon

[Adrian]

In addition to all that, another book that may be useful is Colin Holgate's LiveCode Mobile Development Beginner's Guide. It is available from Amazon (including Kindle) and elsewhere.

Although it is aimed at mobile development, there is a lot that takes you through the basics to get started, including lots of hands-on exercises.

Cheers,

Adrian

[cravera]

Thanks, everyone, for this useful thread. Now that the Kickstarter is funded, I think these kinds of "first steps" tips will become key as new users flock to Livecode --- and they will. I'm looking forward to getting started with Livecode myself.

[Mark]

Hi,

A good "launching point" will be available very soon. I wrote a new book "Programming LiveCode for Real Beginners", which is now on pre-sale. I'm still making a few corrections and I might add a few more pictures, but 99% of it is done and I expect to print it within 2 weeks. It is a real beginners book, but when you finish it, you'll be able to create your own software. Read more about it at Economy-x-Talk's website.

To answer the second question, I start to think that Apple wants developers to have the latest hardware all the time. When you buy the latest and most expensive hardware, you can expect to have to buy new hardware within a few years, because a new version of the operating system may not run on your already obsolete Mac. Therefore, you can save some money by buying the cheapest Mac Mini, if you use it for programming only (for video editing you'd want to buy something faster and for gaming I think I'd go with a PC).

Kind regards,

Mark