Did we just Sherlock MobGUI?

[Uli Kusterer]

Given the Kickstarter includes native Android and iOS GUIs, I'm wondering: What does that mean for MobGUI? Will it be the foundation for the new stuff? And does it have any features beyond the iOS GUI that they will still be able to sell?

[Mark]

I don't know, perhaps you're right, but maybe MobGUI could simply be built into the IDE.

Best,

Mark

[archer2009BUSknbj]

Support for decent looking Mobile Phone Interfaces will be very important to LiveCode's future success.

I'm a total newbie to LiveCode, so from a newbie's point of view I find the MobGUI website very confusing.

I think if you want a website to be easy to follow then it should be designed to work in the same way we read books, .. Start at the Top Left Corner and read left to right, then next line.
The information on how to download, install and run MobGUI is all over the place

With LiveCode going OpenSource there's going to be a time when the newbies using LiveCode (including school students) outnumber the seasoned LiveCode Developers, so people at RunRev and those that create addons are going to have to start thinking about rewriting their instructions more from a newbie's point of view.

I've never used MobGUI so I have no loyalty to the product I'm afraid. But the features it offers are far too important for RunRev to leave as a 3rd party option.
I firmly believe LiveCode's success with hinge on it's support for mobile phones and tablets. Nothing is going to inspire school students more then seeing their creation running on their own and their friend's phones.

[MarcVanCauwenberghe]

I fully agree.

Marc

[Dixie]

archer...

Bernd Niggemann posted a stack in the forums a long time ago that lets you make buttons... it's nice, I've used it a lot
http://forums.runrev.com/viewtopic.php? ... one#p27885

While mobGUI is a very useful tool, I don't think that John Craig ever expected it to be so popular. I think that his thinking was that it was to be a fillip before runrev themselves got around to doing something similar... they didn't... they just started to use mobGUI themselves... Kevin Miller has used it to demonstrate how fast it is to create a mobile app in liveCode...

Dixie

[archer2009BUSknbj]

Am I right in think LiveCode USED to support Bada?Perhaps in the days when it was called Run Time Revolution?

I'm sure I saw a screenshot of it somewhere online. if it's true then my question would be ... why would anyone want to support Bada before supporting Android? .. I'm hoping I just dreamed up the Bada bit.

I wanted to get some practice in on the weekend of using LiveCode so I tried to develop a simple App that would look pixel perfect on my Samsung galaxy Note - the trouble was my App was to be used in Portrait mode and my 1080p LCD TV doesn't rotate so I ended up balancing my TV on it side and using boxes to prop it up.

Not really the ideal solution, it would be nice if LiveCode had a simple Zoom control so I could zoom in and out of the display like I can on any word processor, web browser or drawing package.

LiveCode's back end is very powerful .... but now they got to focus on making the front end prettier and easier to work with.

Some of the first apps I did on my phone over the weekend using LiveCode's native tools looked like my Windows CE PDA from like 10 years ago. Boxy controls which required the use of a stylus to work out of the box.

Right now I'm working on an App for an iphone 4 and it just about fits my screen, but an iPhone 5 App won't and if it comes to doing something for the latest iPad I have no idea what I'll have to do.

[bn]

Bernd Niggemann posted a stack in the forums a long time ago that lets you make buttons... it's nice, I've used it a lot
http://forums.runrev.com/viewtopic.php? ... one#p27885
...
Dixie

though the stack still works for normal resolution iPhone when it was conceived there was no retina. And it was conceived when there were no "native" looking controls except using photoshop images. I wanted to do something more flexible and easy. Then came mobGui and some other GUIs (e.g. Scott Rossi) and I stopped developing it. Although it is actually not limited in vertical size. It is just blocked. Hidden inside is an option to unblock the vertical size. Dixie, if you want me I can look into that. Just increasing the vertical size might not be enough. Never tried to look at it on a retina device.

Dixie there is a hidden and disabled scrollbar "adjustHeight" in the group that sets the width. You can try that if you like. Currently it is set to max 40, you could increase that. As I said you have to try if just increasing the height does not distort the angle of the right/left pointing buttons too much.

And if you use Firefox you can still use it as a revlet. You can even copy a button from the revlet. (select the button/or image with the button then control-C and paste it into Livecode) I thought revlets were cool but I see that plug-ins for browsers are over.

That all being said I think that LiveCode will pretty soon come up with "native" objects. Either as the stretch goal of kickstarter as they said or an interim solution.

I think the problem will be solved soon.

Kind regards
Bernd

[bn]

OK Dixie

DixieUp.png (3.66 KiB) Viewed 14171 times

DixieDown.png (3.62 KiB) Viewed 14171 times

Could not resist...

Kind regards

Bernd

[archer2009BUSknbj]

OK Dixie

DixieUp.png

DixieDown.png

Could not resist...

Kind regards

Bernd

I'm confused.... Is the above post supposed to mean something?

Is this some kind of message only seasoned LiveCode users would understand?

[archer2009BUSknbj]

... Anyways I've just spent the last few hours looking at either buying a new monitor with more pixels and the ability to rotate 90 degrees to help develop Apps for Phones or simply a desk clamp that I can attach my existing 1080p monitor to and rotate that 90 degrees.

[bn]

Hi Archer

I'm confused.... Is the above post supposed to mean something?

Is this some kind of message only seasoned LiveCode users would understand?

I thought it was obvious, sorry. Dixie posted a link to a stack I made that makes buttons for iPhones. In reply to Dixie's post I told him that there is a hidden feature that lets you adjust the height of the button and how to unlock it.

Then came the post with the two images just to show what an image of the double height of the normal looks like. And I called it Dixie.
No more and no less.
No hidden meaning, no offense.

Kind regards
Bernd

[kevinmiller]

We know how important it is to make native user interfaces easier/better on every single platform. Check out our Kickstarter Stretch Goal for Native Themes - we're working on this now: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/175 ... sts/414431

[MarcVanCauwenberghe]

Thank you Kevin for the reminder.

Marc

[archer2009BUSknbj]

We know how important it is to make native user interfaces easier/better on every single platform. Check out our Kickstarter Stretch Goal for Native Themes - we're working on this now: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/175 ... sts/414431

I'm more than happy that the stretch goal gives you the funds to aim for Resolution Independence and that you got what you wanted for Pluggable Themes .... LiveCode seems to be so capable on the backend, but front end stuff at the moment is years out of date.

Basic buttons and text boxes just wont cut it anymore. And the existing controls just aren't finger touch friendly. They don't have the smooth flow and bounce controls that make most native mobile phone apps a pleasure to use. Scroll bars right now are more like Windows CE PDA from 10 years ago and needs a stylus to operate.

Having controls that simply LOOK like native apps isn't going to be enough - they need to FEEL like the real thing as well. I'm not sure if that's possible if LiveCode has to work on PC's as well as mobile phones .. I certainly hope it is possible.

I've just spent the last two days at an event where they wanted us to build prototypes of mobile phone apps and the quality of prototyping software to create stunning user interfaces was amazing with simple drag and drop methods.


... I hope whatever you guys come up with is a lot better and nicer to use then MobGui in usage... Hats off to the developer for creating MobGui but it just doesn't compare to the very latest user interface design software.

I'm really hoping you guys don't simply take existing 3rd Party Addons and add them to LiveCode but use this opportunity to create a user design interface that is just as good as anything else out there in 2013 .. Native apps are much more then the way they look, they're about the way they feel to use, if all it was about was the looks we'd simply create HTML 5 Web Apps that run on a mobile phone and look like a native app.

[Simon]

Hi Archer,
Have you been using "Native scrollers"? They are... native.
Also about the buttons. Sure drag n' drop mobile buttons would be fun. But like in HTML you can still cut all your graphics and set them as the button icons. It's not hard to do and plenty of free iOS/Android psd templates out there for any look you want. If you don't have PhotoShop there is Gimp which is free.

I get it, as a programmer one doesn't want to worry about graphics (thats what graphic designers are for) but with little effort you can keep on top of current trends. Like today, Android is Halo (I think), to keep up with current trends would be difficult with a drag and drop template. Always being dependent on LC updating the graphics? Well maybe with Open Source there will be others adding to the drag and drop.

Simon