Native Controls - iOS and Android

Got a LiveCode personal license? Are you a beginner, hobbyist or educator that's new to LiveCode? This forum is the place to go for help getting started. Welcome!

Moderators: FourthWorld, heatherlaine, Klaus, kevinmiller

Post Reply
TheAppsDude
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2017 3:45 am

Native Controls - iOS and Android

Post by TheAppsDude » Tue Feb 14, 2017 3:50 am

"Complete Beginners"? Ah, a forum specially for me. Thanks.
I am wondering if LiveCode by default supports native controls for iOS and Android? Or is that something that must be configured? Does it need some extension? A pointer to a tutorial or guide that discusses native controls for these platforms would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

LiveCode_Panos
Livecode Staff Member
Livecode Staff Member
Posts: 818
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 4:03 pm

Re: Native Controls - iOS and Android

Post by LiveCode_Panos » Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:54 am

Hi TheAppsDude,

Welcome to LiveCode :)

The standard controls (button, field etc) you can drag from the Tools palette will not have native appearance on mobile. You have to use the "mobileControlCreate", "mobileControlSet" and "mobileControlDo" commands.
Using those commands you can create and set properties of native mobile controls, such as text fields, players, browsers, scrollers etc. I suggest you have a look at:

1. The LiveCode Dictionary
2. This lesson http://lessons.livecode.com/m/4069/l/29 ... -on-mobile and this one: http://lessons.livecode.com/m/4069/l/94 ... ll-a-field
3. This useful tutorial: http://livecode.byu.edu/mobile/device-specific.php

There are commands you can use to create other mobile-specific components, e.g. a pick wheel using "mobilePick". In general, the commands/functions that are specific to mobile start with "mobileXXX".

Best regards,
Panos
--

rinzwind
Posts: 135
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 10:44 am

Re: Native Controls - iOS and Android

Post by rinzwind » Wed Feb 15, 2017 12:44 pm

The question remains why they are not native (or at the very least decent looking and behaving as an end user expects). But alas, its not gonna change.

Lagi Pittas
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 365
Joined: Mon Jun 10, 2013 1:32 pm

Re: Native Controls - iOS and Android

Post by Lagi Pittas » Wed Feb 15, 2017 5:06 pm

You are so <expletive deleted> negative. Don't waste the bandwidth that wasn't called for.

There are only a few things missing that I can see - I have licenses to B4A,B4I,XOJO but I only used XOJO for a 20 line hardware interface - that says something about the power of Livecode and I left 35+ Years of Xbase , Delphi, Pascal etc and I can do everything I need in Livecode and then some. Sure it would be great to have everything tomorrow - infix? , dot notation, databinding , and that's it, as far as I can see, but I won't go on winging. If it was that bad I would jump ship. At the end of the day I have at least 5 other options but none of them do everything I want - Livecode is the closest.

Just so I was sure that rinzwind is always negative I looked up the last few posts. AS i suspected they were about othewr languages do it better, use LUA or b4X or XYZ or this is slow or .... you get the picture?
He are a few of the latest I removed the pointers to some info about Anders Hejlslsberg - they were interesting but were bought up I assume to gee up the programming team (who are in Barbados I belive)_ to add nobs and knockers and Make livecode into an agglutination of ADA, Algo68 , PL/1 and Perl.

<End of rant>
Re: Native Controls - iOS and Android
by rinzwind » Wed Feb 08, 2017 6:20 pm

It is too slow indeed. The language doesnt get any enhancements too. What they could add? Just look at the SenseTalk dev manual... byref vars, dot notation, dynamic property lists, assign multiple values at once, sql as a language construct, simple things as iso date format, date calculations, ...

O and the datagrid is so slow its useless. Bug has been open for half a year. Also the code of that control hmmm and not too friendly. Seems they bought it and never reviewed it. I do respect the work that the one original developer put into it though. But really, LC needs something else.

Oke enough rambling for today. Reorientate LC team.. those controls all look the same like many years ago. Not improved in any way. One would expect a password field by now, and some kind of interactive input mask. All set through properties. And native looking mobile controls... that work.

Ps the link to SenseTalk good organized dev doc: http://docs.testplant.com/PDFs/SenseTal ... erence.pdf
rinzwind

Posts: 127
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 10:44 am

Re: Livecode still way too slow....
Maybe interesting to look into... B4X . Have a promotion going on too for few days (40% off). http://www.b4x.com Desktop is free (uses Java in a relatively Good Way), iOS and Android are payed. Visual Basic 6 users will recognise the language which helps feel @home ;) Just to have some options if yo...
by rinzwind
Fri Feb 10, 2017 12:17 pm


Re: Livecode still way too slow....
It is too slow indeed. The language doesnt get any enhancements too. What they could add? Just look at the SenseTalk dev manual... byref vars, dot notation, dynamic property lists, assign multiple values at once, sql as a language construct, simple things as iso date format, date calculations, ... O...
by rinzwind
Wed Feb 08, 2017 6:20 pm


Re: Not working as expected?
It is daring to ask money for a feature that is nowhere near ready for production... and wont be for the forthseeing future.
by rinzwind
Sun Jan 29, 2017 6:55 pm


Re: Sound latency
Late reply... Even there you have latency. Its bad that theres still no way to have robust instant sound playback. The app just pauses a fraction of a second while the sound is loaded, even when the same sound has already played dozens of times.
by rinzwind
Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:04 am


Re: Create a platformer game via LiveCode?
Just another option for anyone interested... The scripting language Lua (http://www.lua.org/about.html) in combination with Corona or Love2D seems supported and used too (ie one can find many games in the wild build with this, frequently source is available too.. in contrast to lc..). For a Lua IDE ...
by rinzwind
Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:52 am


Why LCB exists?
Shouldn't it be possible to use the main programming/scripting language itself to produce widgets for it?... VB6 did it, Delphi and c# does it. Its reinventing the wheel and doesnt look good for LiveCode Script (since it should be flexible/fast enough to handle it) plus compiler design is not someth...
by rinzwind
Fri Nov 25, 2016 2:30 pm


Jump to post
Re: Compiler howto ;
SenseTalk has "object first syntax" in 2 variations... (never used it since its dedicated to software testing, but its manual looks very professional and promising). See http://docs.testplant.com/?q=content/se ... -reference for an interesting read... And like I said, if one want to offe...
by rinzwind
Sun Nov 13, 2016 6:45 pm


Re: SenseTalk features to LiveCode?
It supports the DOT NOTATION which is clean and short ;) : put (firstName:"Joseph", age:50) into joe put property age of joe -- 50 put the age of joe -- 50 put joe's firstName -- Joseph put joe.firstName -- Joseph tellMeMore's elucidation "terse",5 utilities.insertCommas @myNumbe...
by rinzwind
Thu Sep 15, 2016 5:43 am


SenseTalk features to LiveCode?
I think its a good thing to research the few other xTalk alternatives looking for ideas to improve LiveCode. SenseTalk was the scripting environment of NeXTStep/OpenStep (you know, the one where mr Jobs was involved with) and now officially in use by TestPlant/eggPlant (automated testing platform). ...
by rinzwind
Wed Sep 14, 2016 6:20 am


Re: script local variable
Performance wise locals and globals are preferable to properties. Especially when one accesses or changes them many many times in loops etc. It would be nice if ther was something like a stack scope variable or card scope. But nope. Its all or nothing right now. Array handling trough properties espe...
by rinzwind
Fri Sep 02, 2016 9:03 am


Re: Unicode in Fields and SQLite
Would be welcome if the db library had a property that takes care of it for all text in the app. They have it for file handling... Like I said... even the buildin revDataFromQuery messes up and one cant fix that one with textdecode cause its already in ascii format.
by rinzwind
Thu Sep 01, 2016 5:50 pm


Re: Unicode in Fields and SQLite
Encoding should be a propery you set o a connection. revDataFromQuery outputs bad results too (and unfixable with textfecode) when there is non ascii text...
Lagi

TheAppsDude
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2017 3:45 am

Re: Native Controls - iOS and Android

Post by TheAppsDude » Thu Feb 16, 2017 1:30 am

Thanks for the info and the pointers. I'll have to spend some time exploring how far this will take me.

rinzwind
Posts: 135
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 10:44 am

Re: Native Controls - iOS and Android

Post by rinzwind » Thu Feb 16, 2017 4:06 pm

Just disappointed the way LC is going. So yup, Im looking elsewhere, but want to be sure they see it coming so its not a surprise if things go wrong.
Just look at this announcement of 5.5:
" LiveCode pricing begins at $99 for a single seat license and is available online today."
They completely alienated all small devs that sell some tools here and there with their price going up and up last year. But whatever. Enough said ;)

Batninja
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 55
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2011 9:43 am

Re: Native Controls - iOS and Android

Post by Batninja » Thu Feb 16, 2017 11:19 pm

I'm actually really pleased with the way Livecode is going. :D

Love the new widgets, so easy to use to get professional results.
Love all the training resources and tutorials, excellent information and well presented.
Love the forums with lots of helpful souls without the usual condescension you can get in other forums
Love the fact that after struggling for years with Xcode, PhoneGap etc. Livecode has allowed me realise my dream of deploying iPhone apps
Love the cross platform IDE. I've used and even sold other systems and Livecode is hands down the simplest and most comprehensive platform I've seen.

And finally love love love the easy to use and understand language with a great designer interface that I first got into 25 years ago when I started in IT on Mac.

I could go on, and on, gushing, but my tears are welling up. :lol:

Lagi Pittas
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 365
Joined: Mon Jun 10, 2013 1:32 pm

Re: Native Controls - iOS and Android

Post by Lagi Pittas » Fri Feb 17, 2017 12:58 pm

Hi Rinzwind,

Sorry if I sounded a bit harsh but ...

Yes we would all want everything added yesterday but as Richard once said , if you add the Infix, the dot notation Classes etc you don't then have Livecode - so I'm living with it.

What I would agree on is pricing. I've just upgraded to Business out of interest to see if the Business Application Framework will help me in the future. I'll be totally hones if I came to Livecode and so the $999 and $1999 prices on the front page (I wouldn't go searching to the bottom to find the Open source version hidden at the bottom - I'd probably go with my 2 backups - Xojo and B4A,I,X.

The people at the mothership are not seeing it from my (and many other "Business Programmers" positions). By Business programmer I mean people who write bespoke stuff for clients or say Trevor With Screensteps and Clarify, Richard, Probably Dave Kilroy , Craig, Sparkout , Axwald? and a few others I can't tell what they do.

We at least charge in the hundreds for an of the shelf (unmodified) version of our program or thousands for the installation support and modification of such a program. If I turnover £100,000 say probably $2000 a year is ok with the support but if I am going to write a game for IOS and then find the Open source version is not allowed on the Appstore I really am going to be miffed when I have to spend $999 a year to see if my $1.99 is gonna make me some money.

I will of course then Use Haxe, Gamemaker, XOJO, xHarbour b4I, Gamesalad, $99 or less one off. Out of all those for business XOJO or xHarbour (only for windows) would be the best fit for me personally but the choice for Mobile developers is massive. I (meaning anybody who balks at the eye watering prices for writing an app for IOS) would then be a part of that ecosystem and in the future he/she/it (political correctness gone mad) might be writing apps that work in the cloud and upgrade to the next version of Xojo/B4X/xHarbour. Livecode will have lost that prospective customer forever.

Lower prices and a subscription for support and Updates would be the way to go - xHarbour is based on the open source xHarbour compiler with added visual (proprietary tools)

Pipe in if you think I am wrong here - anybody from Livecode Towers? How much will you lose by having $99 1 off price points for IOS and Android - Maybe Linux. I would suggest minimal - You have already got the Consultants, Windows/Mac Programmers "locked in" but you would get a stream of new programmers trying their hand. (XOJO still hasn't got Android - so you have probably a 10 month window to get in there first).

One final note. a $99 one off that doesn't expire does not mean less revenue because every year the SDKs change so a user needs the updates to continue using the product. If the app didn't make money you lose them, if it does LC has a net gain.

I'll go back under my Rock now.

Regards Lagi

Sorry if the Prose/Smelling Pistakes/grammar are not up to the eloquent proofread and coherent posts that Richard Makes - but I have a program to finish, so as usual a stream of consciousness ensues....

FourthWorld
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 9802
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:05 am
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: Native Controls - iOS and Android

Post by FourthWorld » Fri Feb 17, 2017 7:33 pm

Lagi Pittas wrote:anybody from Livecode Towers?
It's rare that anyone in the company in a position to make decisions about pricing/packaging will be found in these user-to-user support forums.

The best way to submit ideas on those things is to write to the company directly at their general address, support AT livecode.com, where it will be forwarded to the appropriate staff.
Sorry if the Prose/Smelling Pistakes/grammar are not up to the eloquent proofread and coherent posts that Richard Makes - but I have a program to finish, so as usual a stream of consciousness ensues....
Oh, I write my fair share of stream-of-consciousness posts. I just edit them afterwards. :)
Richard Gaskin
LiveCode development, training, and consulting services: Fourth World Systems
LiveCode Group on Facebook
LiveCode Group on LinkedIn

Post Reply

Return to “Getting Started with LiveCode - Complete Beginners”