LiveCode Forums.

Are the "set visible of" and "hide/show" functions
identical or are there situations where one is preferable
to the other?

I think the main difference is that "hide" and "show" can take a "with visual effect" parameter. The hide and show commands will actually change the "visible" property of the relevant controls, so I believe they're pretty close to synonyms. The only other subtle difference I note from the docs is that if you hide a group, then all the controls of the group will be hidden (ie their visible property set to false) but setting the visible of a group does not affect the visible of the individual controls within the group. It's probably too subtle to make much difference in most cases.
That's how I read the docs, there may be more to it than that, but it seems to me that's the sum of the differences.

So a very subtle difference!

Thanks SparkOut.

That's OK - I just hope the info is completely accurate. I'd like to hear from some of the power brains on here too.

I just tested a few different scenarios of "hide" and "set the visible of" for both groups and controls. As far as I can determine they are synonymous. If you can find a recipe that shows otherwise please post it.