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Moving to LiveCode from Adobe (macromedia) Director?

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:50 pm
by Johan_VH
After what seems a lifetime (well, since 1996) of developing in Director and Flash, it's time to say my farewells to them... The problem is, finding an adequate successor... So my question is: will LiveCode fullfill (most if not all) my requirements?

I work at a Science Museum, and these are few requirements:
  • communicating with XML sockets
    communicating with the serial port
    capturing and displaying video from webcam or other cams
    reading and writing text files
    reading and writing databases
    communicating with RFID readers (not a must if I can use XML sockets)
    printing texts and pictures and deciding where they go on the paper
    manipulating images (scaling, cropping, resizing, putting a logo on it)
    publishing all this to desktop Linux or Windows
Soooooo.... Is LiveCode up for this? It seems really close to Director's lingo code, althoug I think I will miss dot syntax a bit...
Any info or advice is well appreciated!

Re: Moving to LiveCode from Adobe (macromedia) Director?

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:40 pm
by andrewferguson
Hello Johan, and welcome to the LiveCode forums!
reading and writing text files
LiveCode can definitely do that. There is a lesson in the LiveCode lessons website which shows you how to do that: http://lessons.runrev.com/s/lessons/m/4 ... put-output
manipulating images (scaling, cropping, resizing, putting a logo on it)
Unfortunately I have very little experience with images and LiveCode. It does seem possible for LiveCode to perform some of the effects that you mention. Take a look at the section in LiveCode lessons on images: http://lessons.runrev.com/s/lessons/m/4071/c/16770
publishing all this to desktop Linux or Windows
LiveCode is very good at cross platform. It has the ability to allow you to create your app once, and publish it on Windows, Linux and Max OS X with little to no changes. It also has the ability to allow our to create and iPhone or android app form your code with some minor changes.

As for your other requests, I am afraid that I do not know. You should take a look in the LiveCode lessons (http://lessons.runrev.com/s/lessons), as it covers a wide range of topics. I see it has a few lessons on working with databases. This may help you with your request for reading and writing databases.

Anyway, good luck in your search for an alternative to Director/Flash.

Andrew