LiveCode on UNIX

[richmond62]

https://livecode.com/docs/9-5-0/languag ... de-script/

states:

"That means you can run any application you create on all major modern operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac OS."

(emphasis mine)

Is this true?

If so, how does one generate a standalone for UNIX?
Or should Linux standalones run on UNIX?

Is it possible to insyall LiveCode on UNIX?

[bogs]

Sorry, I've only ever gotten the older engines to run on Unix.

[richmond62]

Another murky corner of the documentation that has not been updated.

[FourthWorld]

https://livecode.com/docs/9-5-0/languag ... de-script/

states:

"That means you can run any application you create on all major modern operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac OS."

(emphasis mine)

Is this true?

If so, how does one generate a standalone for UNIX?
Or should Linux standalones run on UNIX?

Is it possible to insyall LiveCode on UNIX?

Other than macOS (a certified UNIX), which other UNIX flavors do you need to deploy to?

[bogs]

Other than macOS (a certified UNIX), which other UNIX flavors do you need to deploy to?

You can take your pick of the variety of BSD distros currently available, all are certified Unix distros, based on (of course) the "Berkeley Software Distribution," as it was originally a set of modifications to Bell Unix created at the University of California, Berkeley.

FreeBSD, OpenBSD, or the only one I know of *not* based on BSD, OI Hipster (Solaris which was open sourced by Sun, and is actually very nice, if still a bit slow), the list goes on and on.

With the introduction of SystemD to the Linux sphere, they are all enjoying a good resurgence as well in certain circles (not my circle, of course, I never actually left it having started my trip into Unices with the BSD originator).

To go with the question as Richmond laid it out, though, I think the interpretation would more likely be that at the time the statement was made, the old engines were still in effect. Especially since they specified Mac OS aside from Unix, which tends to indicate it was pre-OSX they were talking about.

[richmond62]

need to deploy to

None.

But I do have a sense of fun and adventure.

And it would be useful were LiveCode available on UNIX.

[FourthWorld]

need to deploy to

None.

But I do have a sense of fun and adventure.

And it would be useful were LiveCode available on UNIX.

Would it? You don't need it, and I can't even recall the last time anyone in our community did. Most of the world has migrated former Unix tasks to Linux. What Unix use remains is so small I haven't seen it measurable in any market share stats in many years.

The last holdout used to be supercomputing, roughly 5% of supercomputers as of about a decade ago. But now Linux runs at least 99% of supercomputers, and that's not a large niche.

It would be premature to consider Unix dead, but as a commercial applications market probably prudent to consider it on life support.

So much of the world's computing ecosystem has standardized on Linux that there's little reason to consider expensive proprietary alternatives, with the sole exception of macOS given its well executed consumer focus.

All that said, I don't know of anything in LiveCode that would make it impossible to set up and maintain a Unix build system, albeit likely with some feature loss given the limited libraries available for Unix. But it would be a LOT of work, so even if we could find anyone who needed it, all the changes up front and through testing and maintenance would make for a very difficult value proposition.

But the source is available if anyone wants to try...

[mwieder]

The Talking LiveCode forum still has as its welcome message

Welcome to the Solaris (and other 'nix) forum!

Personally, I find wanting LC to run on *nix akin to wanting a verbatim HyperCard clone, 1-bit graphics and all.
The last time I remember having any truck with UNIX itself was with minix, and that was before Linus T. came along and changed the world.

[FourthWorld]

The Talking LiveCode forum still has as its welcome message

Welcome to the Solaris (and other 'nix) forum!

Thanks - gone.

Now to figure out what to do with the rest of "Talking LiveCode", and so many other corners of this long-in-the-tooth taxonomy...

[richmond62]

what to do with the rest of "Talking LiveCode"

If you mean the 'Talking LiveCode' section of the Forums, you should just leave it as it is.
Please do not start purging messages that are relevant only to earlier recensions of LiveCode.

so many other corners of this long-in-the-tooth taxonomy

'taxonomy' is not the word I would have chosen here.

But 'long-in-the-tooth' is true with regard to so much on the LiveCode website and parts
of the documentation. In fact some of it is so outdated it is positively misleading.

I don't know how Heather would react if someone downloaded web pages that contained outdated stuff,
edited them and then sent the edited versions to her for checking and re-upload.

Certainly a thought.

[FourthWorld]

what to do with the rest of "Talking LiveCode"

If you mean the 'Talking LiveCode' section of the Forums, you should just leave it as it is.
Please do not start purging messages that are relevant only to earlier recensions of LiveCode.

I wouldn't purge those. I rarely delete things that aren't obvious bot spam.

That one thread was an easy exception as it had only a handful of posts and no information of substance (people asking why there's a section on Solaris so long after Solaris reached EOL, and why Unix was mentioned at all in a topic ostensibly for an entirely different purpose).

With other threads no longer of value for members seeking support, if I do anything with them at all I would consider creating an archive section as many other forums have, and just move the threads without deleting them.

Or I may just leave those less relevant threads in place; it's a lot of work and moderating here is a volunteer activity. While I do try to be responsive to community input on things like this, the number of messages I get complaining about the ratio of signal-to-noise here is not yet high.

so many other corners of this long-in-the-tooth taxonomy

'taxonomy' is not the word I would have chosen here.

"Taxonomy" refers to the hierarchical ordering of a collection. In the literature on information systems design you'll find it used quite commonly.

But 'long-in-the-tooth' is true with regard to so much on the LiveCode website and parts
of the documentation. In fact some of it is so outdated it is positively misleading.

The LC web site and docs are separate concerns from this user-to-user support forum, with different means and personnel employed in their maintenance.

I have no mandate to clean up any other information systems for LiveCode beyond these forums, so for those I would ask once again that you please submit a bug report for any specific obvious errors or omissions you find in the docs or the web site. The bug DB includes flags for those types of requests.

If you see something specific but it's not obvious whether it's an error or omission, using the "Bug Reports" section of these forums to solicit input from other community members to refine the suggestion before submission works as well for content issues as it does for technical ones.

I don't know how Heather would react if someone downloaded web pages that contained outdated stuff,
edited them and then sent the edited versions to her for checking and re-upload.

If the writing is good, fits the tone of the site, and addresses an obvious issue, they may be delighted to have that included in a bug report. I've done that with Dictionary entries and a few site details, and they've always been welcomed.

Since the site is made with a CMS, editing the output HTML may not be the most efficient way to resolve an issue. Submitting the text by itself without the CMS' generated styling markup should be sufficient. If the content requires styled text, minimal inline tags may be helpful.