LiveCode IDE Interface Right Out of 1980's

[richmond62]

It's clear from "Author"'s first post that the account holder is a long-time SuperCard fan.

Quite possibly, although I wonder whether s/he realises that they are developing for an ever-shrinking market:

"SuperCard remains a 32-bit application and will continue to be for the foreseeable future."

https://supercard.us/upgrades.html

That looks like slow Hari Kiri.

I honestly wonder if they are selling any new licences at all.
Not only has SuperCard been stymied by Apple's transition to 64-bit only apps,
it is now up against the ARM processor machines.

This does not thrill my gorilla that much:
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As LC has had "Syntax Colorization, Line Numbering," for at least 20 years.

and:

"New support for antialiased draw graphics and rectangle/polygon buttons."

So comparing LiveCode with SuperCard is, frankly, a non-starter.

What might be useful would be:

1. Looking at other contemporary IDEs on the market.

2. Thinking about affordances (or lack of them) in the LC IDE.

[stam]

Yep - clearly there is no plan for future development if SuperCard is not going 64 bit (let alone multi-platform) and only maintaining existing installations.
No one is going to pick up a product like this for new projects if it can't run on the last 3 Mac OS's (let alone Win + mobile).
That's hara-kiri but without the assistant to decapitate for a quick death...

Lots of nice IDEs out there. I like Xcode. I don't like XOJO but it's IDE is actually very reasonably laid out. I'm sure there are many more nice IDEs out there. I'm not sure i'd avail myself of the interface in SuperCard from what i've seen - it is as dated as LC's IDE.

I'm very curious to see what the final interface of version 10 will be like - it would be a bit disappointing if they didn't refresh the IDE for this to enhance usability and make it more attractive for new users, but balancing this against the habits and needs of existing users will be a challenge!

[richmond62]

but balancing this against the habits and needs of existing users will be a challenge!

It shouldn't have to be.

If we look at GIMP it offers a 'single-window mode' and a series of floating palettes ( a bit like
LiveCode's current IDE) as options.

https://www.gimp.org/

I can see no obvious reason why LiveCode cannot offer in its preferences palette (which is, itself,
long overdue for a revamp) a choice of 2, 3 or even 4 possible IDE interfaces.

[richmond62]

I designed several vaguely alternative IDEs for RunRev/LC in the past.

But LiveCode's move from static stacks for the IDE to ones that are generated when the thing is started from code
put paid to that.

While it is perfectly possible to make a stack that "mucks around with" the Tools and Menubar, it has to be a plug-in
or free-standing stack that is opened and initiated every time the end-user starts up LiveCode; which is a major
turn-off as far as I am concerned.

[PaulDaMacMan]

It's clear from "Author"'s first post that the account holder is a long-time SuperCard fan.

Quite possibly, although I wonder whether s/he realises that they are developing for an ever-shrinking market:

"SuperCard remains a 32-bit application and will continue to be for the foreseeable future."

https://supercard.us/upgrades.html

That looks like slow Hari Kiri.

I honestly wonder if they are selling any new licences at all.
Not only has SuperCard been stymied by Apple's transition to 64-bit only apps,
it is now up against the ARM processor machines.

I think there was some reliance on Carbon (read as MacOS Classic) involved and that's why they never released a 64bit build.
Yet I have heard the occasional whisper of a 64bit build... someday... maybe...
...or maybe they should just move to Uli's StackSmith or something else and use that as their new Engine and then they could build a SuperCard-like IDE on top of it (if they must)? Just a thought.

I do own a license for 4.7.x but honestly I've never really been a fan of SuperCard's take on an xTalk IDE, even way back when.
I'm not %100 sure why that is, but I think it's the way the IDE is setup.