Back To The Future request

[richmond62]

I am aware that "way back when" Jacque (and possibly Klaus) provided a 'thing' to work with MetaCard to update its engine and various other components . . .

. . . this (these?) file(s) was/were stored on one of those vanishing Yahoo groups . . .

I would be most grateful if someone could let me have this material.

Thanks in advance, Richmond Mathewson.

[FourthWorld]

The MetaCard installer was a collaboration between Jacque and myself, AFAIK untouched for nearly a decade.

Just the same, I've dropped the most recent copy I have into LiveNet. In the IDE see Development -> Plugins -> GoLiveNet

To be clear, the only engine change it makes is to the executable name when copying it, changing it to "MetaCard" to help users more readily identify it.

Beyond that all it does is copy that renamed engine into a new folder, and extracts the old MC IDE stacks which are embedded in the installer as custom properties.

Back in the days when a few of us were still using MC, the installer was a time saver when each new LC version was released. But it doesn't do anything that can't be easily done by hand, just copies some files.

The MC IDE stacks embedded were the most recent as of the last time the installer was updated. Any later changes to the MC IDE stacks by Bogs or others will not be present.


As one of the three maintainers of the MC IDE project, I can offer reasonable assurances that there's nothing in those stacks worth using in any production environment today. Engine features have grown far beyond the interfaces provided in those stacks; getting real work done is far more efficient in LC's IDE.

The one thing that may be valuable is the reason I took the time to upload it: it serves as a reminder of the flexibility that has made the LC platform so empowering through the years.

By having the engine completely separate from the IDE UI, everyone can tailor their work environment exactly as best fits their particular workflow.

I haven't examined LC Create, so I don't know whether that separation of concerns is still a wonderfully valuable part of the product vision.

I hope it is. Keeping the engine separate from the UI is not only a godsend for professional devs, it's also enormously useful for the product maintained as well, allowing them to build in layers as needed, confident that engine issues and script issues remain isolated from one another, making so many tasks so much simpler to analyze and build.

While I haven't used the MC IDE in years, I also haven't used LC's, at least not as delivered. A mix of devolution and a dozen other tools tailor the work environment for myself and my clients, in ways that radically speed up our production. I'd like to keep that workflow when the transition to Create is complete.

There's also tremendous value in using stack files as a downloadable resource type, exemplified by LiveNet. But that's a whole other story, and given that the concept is as old as MC itself, and few have realized the value in it, perhaps it's not actually as significant as I've daydreamed about...

[richmond62]

Thank you very much for both the stack and those interesting thoughts.

[richmond62]

[richmond62]

I should not have wasted your time:
-

[FourthWorld]

SS 2025-11-16 at 9.14.16.png

Curious. I tested here before posting

Have you tried it from within LC?

[richmond62]

I have, and I suspect there is now code blocking Community versions from accessing LiveNet.

[FourthWorld]

I have, and I suspect there is now code blocking Community versions from accessing LiveNet.

None in LiveNet itself. It makes no distinctions about which edition it's running in.

Back when I was community manager for the LiveCode Community Edition I tested it there at least as often as in the proprietary edition.

Do the other cards in the LiveNet stack load okay?

[richmond62]

I am carrying on this discussion elsewhere.