Missing original project files...

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laythrom
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Missing original project files...

Post by laythrom » Mon Jun 04, 2018 7:21 pm

First off, I apologize if this is the wrong location to put this and I've tried searching but didn't come up with anything of substance.

Long story short, a friend and I have been working on a program for quite some time. Unfortunately, our pc that we were using for the livecode is completely dead and we cannot find the .livecode file (just some of our SQL stuff and images) and a couple of the earlier stand alone exports.

Is it even remotely possible to pull some of the work that we've already finished from an extracted exe file (i.e. the .project, .rdata, .data, etc) or are we completely hosed to the point of having to start over from scratch?

bogs
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Re: Missing original project files...

Post by bogs » Mon Jun 04, 2018 7:57 pm

laythrom wrote:
Mon Jun 04, 2018 7:21 pm
Is it even remotely possible to pull some of the work that we've already finished from an extracted exe file (i.e. the .project, .rdata, .data, etc) or are we completely hosed to the point of having to start over from scratch?
I can't answer the first question, but I suspect the answer to it would be 'no'.

On the second question, it would depend on what kind of death the PC actually suffered. In other words, have you tried accessing the hardrive either from an alternate pc, or from a rescue disc? Short of the hd failing completely, even if the rest of the PC is trashed, you should be able to recover the project files relatively simply.

Of course, if the hd is dead, it might become more involved.
Image

richmond62
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Re: Missing original project files...

Post by richmond62 » Mon Jun 04, 2018 8:43 pm

Theoretically, at least, if you authored an .exe standalone with the
Community version you should be able to get at the code.

laythrom
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Re: Missing original project files...

Post by laythrom » Mon Jun 04, 2018 8:59 pm

bogs wrote:
Mon Jun 04, 2018 7:57 pm
laythrom wrote:
Mon Jun 04, 2018 7:21 pm
Is it even remotely possible to pull some of the work that we've already finished from an extracted exe file (i.e. the .project, .rdata, .data, etc) or are we completely hosed to the point of having to start over from scratch?
I can't answer the first question, but I suspect the answer to it would be 'no'.

On the second question, it would depend on what kind of death the PC actually suffered. In other words, have you tried accessing the hardrive either from an alternate pc, or from a rescue disc? Short of the hd failing completely, even if the rest of the PC is trashed, you should be able to recover the project files relatively simply.

Of course, if the hd is dead, it might become more involved.
Unfortunately, the drive is completely kaput. We've tried salvaging the data, but it was fruitless (physical damage).
richmond62 wrote:
Mon Jun 04, 2018 8:43 pm
Theoretically, at least, if you authored an .exe standalone with the
Community version you should be able to get at the code.


This was where my hopes were laying. It was/is made with the Community version and I was hoping that there might be a way to pull some of the source from the exe since the source code isn't protected. I just wasn't sure if it is possible and if it was, how it would be done.

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Re: Missing original project files...

Post by dunbarx » Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:39 pm

I could be wrong about this, but I do not think that just because the exe. was made with the community version that the source code is any more accessible than with any other version.

I think it is just that the code must be made available as open source. But I think all resulting standalones are indistinguishable from any other standalone.

Did I mention I could be wrong?

Craig

richmond62
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Re: Missing original project files...

Post by richmond62 » Mon Jun 04, 2018 11:06 pm

As far as I understand the whole "point" about paying for the commercial version
of LiveCode is so one can lock stacks inwith standalones so end-users cannot access
the code.

Having said that, I just opened an .exe standalone built with the Community version
with a text editor and could see nothing comprehensible whatsoever.

At which point one has to ask what advantage is there of this:
password.png

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Re: Missing original project files...

Post by jacque » Tue Jun 05, 2018 4:48 pm

I lost six weeks of work once when the same thing happened to me many years ago. I was doing sporadic backups manually but not often enough. Since then I've set up automatic backups to multiple hard drives. I think a lot of us have been through that painful lesson. A notable member of our community found himself in the same boat once. After the period of mourning passed he rewrote the app from scratch. He said it was much better the second time.

Did you ever put the files in the cloud, or share them with a friend, or anything similar? Even if they are older versions it would be a start.

It isn't possible for us mere mortals to extract the stacks from standalones but the LC team can, or at least they could a few years ago. They will charge you for the service, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
Jacqueline Landman Gay | jacque at hyperactivesw dot com
HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com

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Re: Missing original project files...

Post by jacque » Tue Jun 05, 2018 4:54 pm

At which point one has to ask what advantage is there of this:
It's a remnant of older versions of LC where standalones were not assembled in the same way. But it is still useful for encrypting stacks that ship with the standalone separately, as is common with the splash stack approach.
Jacqueline Landman Gay | jacque at hyperactivesw dot com
HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com

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