Baby stuff

Creating Games? Developing something for fun?

Moderators: FourthWorld, heatherlaine, Klaus, kevinmiller, robinmiller

richmond62
Livecode Opensource Backer
Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 9286
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:17 am
Location: Bulgaria

Baby stuff

Post by richmond62 » Fri Jun 14, 2019 1:40 pm

Probably . . .
-
gameTest.jpg
-
But here I am in my villa in the Rhodopes, away from all my jazzy computers, making do with
a 32-bit Mac Intel iMac running MacOS 10.6.8 running LiveCode 8.1.10 . . . not half as bad as it seems!
-
Anyway . . . to cut a short story long . . . some silly prawns (read "naive 10-11 year olds I teach")
made some fairly off-colour remarks about not being able to produce a 2D map-based game
with LiveCode without a game engine (which is, of course, a load of cack) . . .

Controlling a deep-seated urge to smash their teacher at the Maths school in the "mush"
(he teaches these kids C++ and Visual BASIC and says that Linux and Macintosh are
"also rans" compared with Windows), I told them I'd produce a proof-of-concept this
weekend (and a very dirty weekend it has been, too: mainly because
Karen Armstrong's "A History of God" is far, far more interesting than moving
silly icons round a screen).

Each silly icons contains this script:

Code: Select all

on mouseUp
   send "mouseUp" to btn "reset"
   put the name of me into fld "fNAME"
   set the outerglow["color"] of me to 255,255,255
   set the outerglow["size"] of me to 20
   set the outerglow["spread"] of me to 20
end mouseUp
and the script of the backGroundImage is this:

Code: Select all

on mouseUp
   put the mouseLoc into xPLACE
   put fld "fNAME" into xNAME
   move xNAME to xPLACE
end mouseUp
Rocket science it ain't: but it is a good 15 minutes work. 8)

richmond62
Livecode Opensource Backer
Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 9286
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:17 am
Location: Bulgaria

Re: Baby stuff

Post by richmond62 » Fri Jun 14, 2019 1:44 pm

And the button "reset" goes like this:

Code: Select all

on mouseUp
   set the outerglow["size"] of img "bee.png" to 0
   set the outerglow["spread"] of img "bee.png" to 0
   --
   set the outerglow["size"] of img "insect.png" to 0
   set the outerglow["spread"] of img "insect.png" to 0
   --
   set the outerglow["size"] of img "bfly" to 0
   set the outerglow["spread"] of img "bfly" to 0
   --
end mouseUp

richmond62
Livecode Opensource Backer
Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 9286
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:17 am
Location: Bulgaria

Re: Baby stuff

Post by richmond62 » Fri Jun 14, 2019 4:21 pm

Currently stealing Warcraft sprites:

https://www.spriters-resource.com/pc_co ... warcraft2/

ardyy77
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:59 pm

Re: Baby stuff

Post by ardyy77 » Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:07 pm

Ahaha. Well these are really baby stuff

richmond62
Livecode Opensource Backer
Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 9286
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:17 am
Location: Bulgaria

Re: Baby stuff

Post by richmond62 » Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:15 am

ardyy77 wrote:
Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:07 pm
Ahaha. Well these are really baby stuff
And your point is?

richmond62
Livecode Opensource Backer
Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 9286
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:17 am
Location: Bulgaria

Re: Baby stuff

Post by richmond62 » Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:57 am

While this may, indeed, be "baby stuff", LiveCode should wake up
and realise that all around the world children both in classrooms and
at home both want to and are required to program "baby stuff" and
are doing so using other methods than LiveCode because LiveCode
is not doing anything whatsoever to promote its use to do "baby stuff"
and help those "babies" get up off the floor of babyhood and into
the swing of full-blown computer programming.

Doing baby stuff with nonsense such as the block-programming toys
does those babies no favours at all.

My silly parents thought they could help me learn to swim by giving me flippers.
So, I learnt to swim with flippers.

Took the flippers off and I sank like a stone.

So a year of "swimming" lessons with flippers basically constituted:

wasted money

wasted time

wasted effort

and a traumatised wee boy who was fixated on flippers.
-
Screenshot 2020-09-02 at 11.56.27.png
Last edited by richmond62 on Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

Francesco77
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2020 8:16 pm

Re: Baby stuff

Post by Francesco77 » Thu Dec 31, 2020 9:53 am

richmond62 wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:57 am
While this may, indeed, be "baby stuff", LiveCode should wake up
and realise that all around the worl children both in classrooms and
at home both want to and are required to program "baby stuff" and
are doing so using other methods than LiveCode because LiveCode
is not doing anything whatsoever to promote its use to do "baby stuff"
and help those "babies" get up off the floor of babyhood and into
the swing of full-blown computer programming.
...
...
Richmond62, I agree 100%.

I am a graduated educator and work as a teacher in an elementary school with kids up to the age of 10 or 11 years.
Everyday I am horrified about how little these kids know about how computers work. They have no idea about programming and they don't even come up with the idea of creating little apps by themselves.
The idea of a generation with computer literacy simply by playing with their phones and tablets is a myth. Actually these kids know nothing about computers and programming. They are not even able to work with a simple text or word processor.

I tried several things in the past. Among others the by you mentioned SCRATCH "programming language".
I agree that the kids do not really learn to code this way, but they get at least a faint idea of how a computer "thinks".

I also agree that LC could be a great help with teaching programming and computer science in schools.
Unfortunately LC is - at least here in Germany - hardly known to teachers and I am pretty sure that not a single student of my classes has ever heard about it.

The question is: What can be done to make it better?

I would like to offer my help with this. Since I am not a professional programmer I could help with the educational and pedagogical aspects and in any case with translations into German.

Let me know if I can support such a project in any way.

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

Re: Baby stuff

Post by FourthWorld » Thu Dec 31, 2020 10:26 am

richmond62 wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:57 am
While this may, indeed, be "baby stuff", LiveCode should wake up
and realise that all around the worl children both in classrooms and
at home both want to and are required to program "baby stuff" and
are doing so using other methods than LiveCode because LiveCode
is not doing anything whatsoever to promote its use to do "baby stuff"
and help those "babies" get up off the floor of babyhood and into
the swing of full-blown computer programming.
Three questions define any business proposal:

- What do you want them to do?
- How much will it cost to do it?
- How much will that make by doing it?

With any request of any business, answer those three questions, where the last answer is compellingly large, and you'll likely see what you're looking for.
Richard Gaskin
LiveCode development, training, and consulting services: Fourth World Systems
LiveCode Group on Facebook
LiveCode Group on LinkedIn

jiml
Posts: 336
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:27 am
Location: Los Angeles

Re: Baby stuff

Post by jiml » Tue Jan 12, 2021 2:42 am

- What do you want them to do?
- How much will it cost to do it?
- How much will that make by doing it?
I'd add a question between 1 and 2. Do they want to do it?

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

Re: Baby stuff

Post by FourthWorld » Tue Jan 12, 2021 4:03 am

jiml wrote:
Tue Jan 12, 2021 2:42 am
- What do you want them to do?
- How much will it cost to do it?
- How much will that make by doing it?
I'd add a question between 1 and 2. Do they want to do it?
I would think that would depend on the answer to #3.
Richard Gaskin
LiveCode development, training, and consulting services: Fourth World Systems
LiveCode Group on Facebook
LiveCode Group on LinkedIn

richmond62
Livecode Opensource Backer
Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 9286
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:17 am
Location: Bulgaria

Re: Baby stuff

Post by richmond62 » Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:08 am

at least here in Germany - hardly known to teachers and I am pretty sure that not a single student of my classes has ever heard about it.
Part of the reason teachers, kids, and parents don't know about LiveCode is that educators who DO know about it
are not telling them.

Newbie4
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 327
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 1:17 am
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Baby stuff

Post by Newbie4 » Tue Jan 12, 2021 7:37 pm

I agree with Richmond
While this may, indeed, be "baby stuff", LiveCode should wake up and realise that all around the world children both in classrooms and at home both want to and are required to program "baby stuff" and are doing so using other methods than LiveCode
We need more "baby stuff. The way to adoption is to make it look easy for them to get started and provide pathways to do games and apps on their own. Now that kids are home and on their computers so much, we have that chance.
If we look at other languages that came from nowhere to be used in the schools (i.e. Pilot, Logo/turtle graphics, Scratch) they were all easy for a teacher to get started with or for children to pick up on their own. Children and teachers were not intimidated. It looked easy and fun to get started
---
We can not depend on LiveCode because, as FourthWorld said
Three questions define any business proposal:
- What do you want them to do?
- How much will it cost to do it?
- How much will that make by doing it?
It is difficult to make a business case for LiveCode to expend resources and money for the educational market. There are more lucrative markets for them to go after. We can ask them for help but we have to do it ourselves.
-----
I also agree that LC could be a great help with teaching programming and computer science in schools.
Unfortunately LC is - at least here in Germany - hardly known to teachers and I am pretty sure that not a single student of my classes has ever heard about it.
There is the reality that it is very difficult to get LiveCode even considered, much less accepted as a programming language in schools.

- from Administrators, teachers: "We need staff and training." "We do not have the budget" "We need curriculum"
- from Parents: "Who uses it?", "What has been written in it?", "What university uses it?", "What jobs are there using it?"
- from IT staff: "I never heard of it. What has been written in it? Who uses it?, etc."
- from CS teachers: "It is not a mainstream language" and most of them have their own favorite language that they promote and teach with.

On the plus side, there is a void in CS programming langs. We have an opportunity to be the stepping stone between Scratch and Python in the schools (if not replace Scratch or Python entirely)

----
Part of the reason teachers, kids, and parents don't know about LiveCode is that educators who DO know about it
are not telling them
Not true. I think all of us teaching with LiveCode are also evangelists and promote LiveCode at every chance we get.

I am active in many organizations - CSTA (Computer Science Teachers Assoc), ACM, etc and In large Facebook Groups (Computer Science Educators - 2,000 members, AP CS A Teachers - 3,200 members, Computer Science - 33,400 members, CS Education discussion forum - 2,800 members) and I take advantage of every opportunity to talk about LiveCode.

Despite my successes in the classroom - (My LC and AP classes were the most popular classes in the school - I had over 220 students a day and our school became the primary feeder school for CS students at the Univ. of Maryland)
and my students winning awards - (US Congressional App Challenge - 1st/2nd/3rd places for 3 years), hackathons (writing apps in 24 hours), no other schools, teachers or even the school district could be convinced to adopt LiveCode anywhere else. When I retired, the classes died.
----
The question is: What can be done to make it better?
I was successful with it in my school because I made it look easy to make games and apps and was there to show them the way and foster their creativity. What we need to do is make it look easy to get started and look fun to do on our own.

I suggest that:
- we start collecting code samples, projects, ideas, curriculum and building a collection of resources for teachers to use
- we design a simplified starter interface for younger students to use
- we create simplified directions for teachers, parents and/or students
- we create a sampling of easy games/apps for students to write, providing working, starter code. Then have suggestions for making the games better, more fun, etc.

Our goals:
1. Provide more support to entice teachers to teach with LiveCode. Maybe even Lesson plans and some different curriculums
2. Create a "Getting Started" roadmap for Teachers (non-programmers who want to include some programming in their classes)
3. Create a "Getting Started" roadmap for Parents (many of whom are now working from home and somewhat tech savvy)
4. Create a "Getting Started" roadmap for Students (who are bored with Scratch, want to learn programming or create fun games)
5. Create a list of "What you can create with LiveCode" games and apps with directions

Maybe LiveCode could provide us webspace to create and host an "Educational Resources", "Getting Started" or "Fun Programs, Games and Apps Using LiveCode" I would be willing to devote some time to help out.

Anyway, that is my take on LiveCode and what we could do.
Cyril Pruszko
https://sites.google.com/a/pgcps.org/livecode/
https://sites.google.com/a/setonhs.org/app-and-game-workshop/home
https://learntolivecode.com/

richmond62
Livecode Opensource Backer
Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 9286
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:17 am
Location: Bulgaria

Re: Baby stuff

Post by richmond62 » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:43 am

Screenshot 2021-01-13 at 11.34.03.png
-
ENTRY (a block coding interface from South Korea) has an interface where, as end-users set up
things with blocks the equivalent (underlying ?) Python code is shown in a window to the right.
This works on the theory that children are able to make the cognitive leap from block coding
to Python.

Personally I find this idea questionable.

As my brief forays into Python gave me a slightly bad taste in my mouth
(probably "traumatised" :twisted: by adventures with PASCAL 5 in 1985: face facts, Python looks like a PASCAL knock-off)
I wonder how in blazes children of 5,6,7,8,9 are going to manage things.

HOWEVER . . .

I do wonder about some sort of similar interface for LiveCode . . .

For the sake of argument, if we wanted we could "steal" the ENTRY images (all open source) and use
its interface with LiveCode:

https://github.com/entrylabs/entry-offline
Last edited by richmond62 on Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

richmond62
Livecode Opensource Backer
Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 9286
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:17 am
Location: Bulgaria

Re: Baby stuff

Post by richmond62 » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:52 am

We can not depend on LiveCode because
they have indicated by a large patch of silence that they are not interested in this at all.

I have been belting out the "education" and the "grab them while they are young" mantra for years.

But, Hey, I guess:
-
trolls.png

jacque
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
VIP Livecode Opensource Backer
Posts: 7214
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:31 pm
Location: Minneapolis MN
Contact:

Re: Baby stuff

Post by jacque » Wed Jan 13, 2021 7:02 pm

richmond62 wrote:
Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:52 am
they have indicated by a large patch of silence that they are not interested in this at all.
You may not remember when they devoted an entire year to the education market. That was when LC was adopted as the teaching language by all lower level schools in Scotland (in the US we call them "grade schools" or "elementary schools".) They made some inroads in other countries too but that's as far as it went. Most teachers resisted teaching anything other than their own pet language.
Jacqueline Landman Gay | jacque at hyperactivesw dot com
HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com

Post Reply

Return to “Games”