{"id":15235,"date":"2015-10-15T15:47:17","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T15:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/?p=15235"},"modified":"2015-10-15T15:49:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T15:49:06","slug":"how-livecode-lite-makes-computer-programming-ridiculously-simple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/how-livecode-lite-makes-computer-programming-ridiculously-simple\/","title":{"rendered":"How LiveCode Lite Makes Computer Programming Ridiculously Simple"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am not a programmer. I am an educator and I have used many programming languages – going back to HyperCard – for their short learning curves, power, and ease of use. Over the years, I\u2019ve used LiveCode to create many educational applications<\/a> for the university and my publishing company, Medmaster<\/a>. LiveCode has been enormously useful to create apps for Windows and Macintosh. For instance, the app \u201cAtlas of Human Diseases<\/a>,\u201d which describes in pictures and text over 11,000 diseases in the world, could take a lifetime to do as a book, but it required only a few days with LiveCode.<\/p>\n

\"Medmaster<\/a>I am not a programmer. I am an educator and I have used many programming languages – going back to HyperCard – for their short learning curves, power, and ease of use. Over the years, I\u2019ve used LiveCode to create many educational applications<\/a> for the university and my publishing company, Medmaster<\/a>. LiveCode has been enormously useful to create apps for Windows and Macintosh. For instance, the app \u201cAtlas of Human Diseases<\/a>,\u201d which describes in pictures and text over 11,000 diseases in the world, could take a lifetime to do as a book, but it required only a few days with LiveCode.<\/p>\n

Medmaster\u2019s focus has been the development of brief books for students that quickly show overall concepts with understanding. LiveCode has added interactivity through CDs accompanying the books or downloadable applications for Mac and Windows.<\/p>\n

It was relatively easy for me to learn LiveCode because of my background with HyperCard, but it may not be so easy for a beginner with little computer programming background.\u00a0 While HyperCard had only about 150 scripting words, LiveCode has over 2000, with the number growing as LiveCode advances. There needs to be a brief, linear, getting-started book that makes it easy for those with little programming background to learn LiveCode.<\/p>\n

I, therefore, wrote \u201cLiveCode Lite: Computer Programming Made Ridiculously Simple<\/strong>\u201d (available as a free PDF download<\/a> from Medmaster), which focuses on 150 or so most useful LiveCode programming words (in my experience) and how to use them, as well as the LiveCode interface, to help the beginner get started and create an enormous variety of applications with this information alone.<\/p>\n

\"MedmasterBooks\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As LiveCode continues to advance to higher versions and applications for mobile devices, the language and interface also continue to expand. My book is written at the level of LiveCode 5.5.3, (which I have found particularly stable). LiveCode is now up to version 8 and extends into mobile apps, which my book does not cover.\u00a0 However, in order to develop mobile apps, it is important to start with a basic background in LiveCode, which the book provides.<\/p>\n

The book now needs expansion that includes mobile apps and the new LiveCode versions as they advance, describing:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How is the LiveCode interface changing?<\/li>\n
  2. Which of the basic original LiveCode script words are not applicable to mobile devices or to the latest LiveCode versions?<\/li>\n
  3. What new basic script words have been added that apply specifically to mobile devices and the new LiveCode versions? The focus needs to be on the most important words to know and how to use them, so that the user can grasp the overall picture without getting lost in detail.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Since I have not programmed for mobile devices, I welcome other contributors to help extend the book in that area, as well as updating the language for newer LiveCode versions as they advance.<\/p>\n

    Got ideas? Want to help Stephen extend his book? Get in touch in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Stephen Goldberg, MD is a\u00a0Professor Emeritus of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is also the\u00a0President of the Medmaster Publishing Co<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I am not a programmer. I am an educator and I have used many programming languages – going back to HyperCard – for their short learning curves, power, and ease of use. Over the years, I\u2019ve used LiveCode to create many educational applications for the university and my publishing company, Medmaster. LiveCode has been enormously<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[239,241,240],"class_list":["post-15235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-beginner","tag-educational-apps","tag-medmaster"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15235"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15277,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15235\/revisions\/15277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.livecode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}