LiveCode Forums.

Hi

I am a complete beginner attempting to learn LiveCode I have so far:-

I have repeatedly watched and tried to replicate the tutorials for the task list app thingy from the nice Scottish lady. I have mind-mapped a lot of it and can tell you at what time in Lesson 3 she starts talking about arrays etc.

I have printed out and poured over the user guide.

I have searched YouTube for other video tutorials.

I have attempted to find face to face training for LiveCode to no avail.

I have made the 3 5 7 game thingy.

I have studied user samples which have overwhelmed me.

I have asked lots of daft questions on the forum and received some fantastic replies.

I would now like to make some flash card type cards to aid and speed up my learning and retaining of things. This is a system called SAFMEDS which stands for Say All Fast A Minute Every Day Shuffled. It is just like flash cards with a sentence on the front with a blank and the answer on the back. The sentences should be as short as possible with only one concept to learn on each card and the missing word should be towards the end of the sentence. The only trouble is that to make the cards you really need to be an expert in the subject. I am clearly not I have made some examples and I would be very grate full in people would correct anything I have got wrong and also add some things that I don't know I need to learn. Here is what I have managed so far they are in no particular order:-

LiveCode SAFMEDS

Q. To clear the contents of a field - put _______ into field "fieldName"
A. empty

Q. To delete a field completely use - _______ "fieldName"
A. clear

Q. To choose a randomly selected number from a range of numbers use - put _______ "0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9" into "fieldName"
A. any item of

Q. To return any number between 1 and 22 use - _______(22)
A. random

Q. To refer to the button you are using without using the buttons name use - _______
A. ME

Q. To change the label of a button use - _______ of button "buttonName" to “whatEverYouWant”
A. set the label

Q. To create a variable use - put 3 * x into _______
A. tVariable

Q. Anything that holds information is called a _______
A. container

Q. The primary way of working with text in LiveCode is by using _______
A. chunk expressions

Q. The character that separates text in lists is called the _______
A. delimiter

Q. To change the delimiter in a list use – set the _______ to “tab”
A. itemDelimiter

Q. A place to store data is a _______
A. variable

Q. Variables are created by the _______
A. programmer

Q. A variable has no _______
A. on screen representation

Q. To see what is in a variable use the _______
A. variable watcher

Q. A variable can be thought of as a box with a _______ on it
A. box

Q. A variable that holds more than a single value is called _______
A. an array

Q. The name of each value in an array is called _______
A. an element

Q. The name of each element in an array is a _______
A. key

Q. To fetch the value of an expression use the _______ command
A. get

Q. A value, a source of value, or a set of values combined with operators that can be taken as a single whole is _______
A. an expression

Q. To get information or a confirmation from the user before continuing use the _______ command
A. answer

Q. to turn off the highlighting of a button and restore it to its normal state, or to turn off a checkbox or radio button use the _______ command
A. unhilite

How did I do and what else is important in the beginning?

Many many thanks

HJay

Q. To rearrange items on the screen or to change locations without the user seeing the transition use the _______ command
A. lock screen

Very good. Just a couple of things:

Q. The character that separates text in lists is called the _______

"Delimiter" is sort of correct, but it isn't a keyword. There are different kinds of delimiters so you need to specify whether you mean the itemDelimiter or the lineDelimiter. Your basic concept is correct though.

Q. A variable can be thought of as a box with a _______ on it
A. box

Not sure this makes sense. A variable is like a box. It contains something. What it contains is up to the programmer.

Q. A variable that holds more than a single value is called _______
A. an array

That's one way, but there are other ways to specify more than a single value, so "array" is only one possible answer. But if you discount the different ways you can set up string variables (text) then "array" is probably right.

Q. to turn off the highlighting of a button and restore it to its normal state, or to turn off a checkbox or radio button use the _______ command
A. unhilite

I had to look this up, I didn't even know it was in the dictionary. Usually you see the "hilite" command with either a "true" or "false" parameter. Your answer is correct though, just not as common.

I'll give you somewhere between 99 and 100% correct.

Brill thanks

Could you do me a Q. and A. with the answer as itemDelimiter please?

Q. A variable can be thought of as a box with a _______ on it
A. box

This is a typo and should read:-

Q. A variable can be thought of as a box with a _______ on it
A. name

I had to look this up, I didn't even know it was in the dictionary. Usually you see the "hilite" command with either a "true" or "false" parameter. Your answer is correct though, just not as common.

Could you do me a Q. and A. with the common version please?

Again many thanks

HJay

Q. The character that separates chunks of text is called the _______
A. ItemDelimiter

Q. The character that separates lines in lists is called the _______
A. LineDelimiter

Q. To toggle the hilited state of a standard, radio, or checkbox button, set the _______ to true or false.
A. Hilite

That last one sounds kind of redundant, maybe you can think of a better way to phrase it.

The delimiter questions should be qualified. A script can set both item and line delimiters to any character.

Brill thanks

Q. To toggle the hilited state of a standard, radio, or checkbox button, set the _______ to true or false.
A. Hilite

Q. To toggle the highlighted state of a standard, radio, or checkbox button, set the _______ to true or false.
A. hilite

How is that? Is hilite an american spelling or is abbreviated for LiveCode?

Also are there anyother sentences that a beginer should be familiar with? I would like to get to about 60

Many thanks

HJay

"Hilite" is one of eight synonyms, one of which is "highlight". They all work identically in scripts. The shorter form tends to be used the most because it's faster to type. I suspect you're right it is an American word, since we tend to mangle as many words as possible.

You probably already know this, but we are unlikely to have the time to help with all ~3000 dictionary words.

However, "highlight" isn't always a synonym for "hilite", and that's where things get frustrating. For example, you can say
but not
There's no excuse for this sloppiness. It would be very simple to add synonyms, would reduce confusion, and wouldn't break existing code unless a coder was deliberately trying to be obscure by creating custom properties that were *almost* like builtin properties. I filed a bug on this years ago.

Hi Jacque

Thanks for your help, I'm only trying to get to 60 for now

HJay

Would this work?

Q. To add or remove emphasis of a standard, radio, or checkbox button, set the _______ to true or false.
A. hilite

Are these ok?

Q. To highlight compilation errors in a line of code _______ in the errors pane.
A. double click

Q. You can declare a _______ variable in one stack and use it in another.
A. global

Q. A global variable can be used by any _______ anywhere in any objects script.
A. handler

Q. To create a global variable declare it using _______ gSomeGlobalSetting.
A. global

Q. To allow a handler to access a global variable elsewhere, use the _______ at the start of the handler.
A. global command

Thanks

HJay

And these?

Q. To change a card's objects, or perform other updates, when the card is first accessed use the _______ script.
A. On openCard

Q. To make changes that take effect before the card becomes visible on the screen, use the _______ message.
A. preOpenCard

Do these Q and A's make sense?


Q. A complete section of code is called a _______.
A. handler.

Q. The name for a set of instructions enclosed by the ‘on’ and ‘end’ lines is a _______.
A. message handler

Q. Buttons, fields, check boxes, menus and graphics are all types of _______.
A. objects

Q. An instruction for LiveCode to do something is a _______.
A. command

Q. A command is placed at the _______ of a statement.
A. start

Q. A statement is a line of _______.
A. code

Q. A function call is a request to LiveCode for _______.
A. information

Q. A function gives _______.
A. an answer

Q. If you lock the text in a field it acts like a _______.
A. button

Q. To concatenate chunks of text use _______.
A. &

Q. To concatenate chunks of text with a space between use _______.
A. &&

Q. All object names must appear in _______.
A. “ “

Q. All local and global variable names must be _______.
A. oneWord