Re: breakdown of my book (LiveCode Mobile Development)...
Ordered both the dead-tree and dead-electron versions. Colin gave a quick run-through at the conference and I'm seriously impressed. Looking forward to kicking the tires. -- Mark Wieder mwie...@ahsoftware.net ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: breakdown of my book (LiveCode Mobile Development)...
I pre-ordered, too. This should make an excellent companion to last year's online course on mobile app development. Can't wait for the release date. Soon, very soon On Jul 22, 2012, at 9:21 AM, Keith Clarke wrote: > ...yep, jumped in, too - thanks Colin. > > As an old dog learning a new trick with development - and with LiveCode as my > first step beyond HTML - I need some kind of best practice 'straight and > narrow' path, amidst all the brilliant, creative but divergent '100 ways to > roll your own' ideas that seem to fill the LiveCode universe. > > Here's hoping it's financially successful, so that others see the potential > in helping create some LiveCode best practice guides, to prevent each and > every would-be LiveCode developer from having to shove their hands into every > fire to learn everything from scratch, the hard way. > Best, > Keith.. > > On 21 Jul 2012, at 23:42, Monte Goulding wrote: > >> Cool... 20% off. I got mine. >> >> -- >> M E R Goulding >> Software development services >> >> mergExt - There's an external for that! >> >> On 21/07/2012, at 8:24 PM, Ken Corey wrote: >> >>> I am definitely in the "so much left to learn" camp. >>> >>> I'd like to buy the book...and you've whetted my appetite...but no link? >>> >>> Well, let's just fix that: >>> Packt web page, with ebook and paper versions : http://bit.ly/OKMkTQ >>> B&N dead tree version : http://bit.ly/LzzT9v >>> >>> I preordered mine on Packt as an ebook. >>> >>> Enjoy that lunch on me! >>> >>> All the best. >>> >>> -Ken >>> >>> ___ >>> use-livecode mailing list >>> use-livecode@lists.runrev.com >>> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your >>> subscription preferences: >>> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode >> >> ___ >> use-livecode mailing list >> use-livecode@lists.runrev.com >> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription >> preferences: >> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode > > > ___ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: breakdown of my book (LiveCode Mobile Development)...
Just preordered my copy as well Can't wait! On Sunday, July 22, 2012, Colin Holgate wrote: > I wouldn't go so far as to say I did "best practices"! Björnke can tell > you (he's one of the two reviewers, Andreas being the other) that I did a > few things in a way that wasn't how he would have done them! > > For much of the book, where it's talking about installing SDKs and the > like, there are not really any alternate ways of doing things. For the > LiveCode though, I did some things in a way that would be easiest for a > beginner to follow. As an example I may well have used "repeat with" when a > best practicing LiveCoder would use "repeat for each", because I was > illustrating something else at the time, and didn't want to get into > explaining why "repeat for each" would be a favored way to do the same > thing. > > Both reviewers made comments about code things, and where possible I > adjusted it in a way that would still be easy enough to follow, but that > would answer their criticism. I'm quite sure there will still be a bunch of > things in there that are dubious, and I'm looking forward to some lengthy > debates here in the future! > > > On Jul 22, 2012, at 9:21 AM, Keith Clarke < > keith.cla...@clarkeandclarke.co.uk > wrote: > > > >I need some kind of best practice 'straight and narrow' path, amidst > all the brilliant, creative but divergent '100 ways to roll your own' ideas > that seem to fill the LiveCode universe. > > ___ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your > subscription preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode > ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: breakdown of my book (LiveCode Mobile Development)...
I wouldn't go so far as to say I did "best practices"! Björnke can tell you (he's one of the two reviewers, Andreas being the other) that I did a few things in a way that wasn't how he would have done them! For much of the book, where it's talking about installing SDKs and the like, there are not really any alternate ways of doing things. For the LiveCode though, I did some things in a way that would be easiest for a beginner to follow. As an example I may well have used "repeat with" when a best practicing LiveCoder would use "repeat for each", because I was illustrating something else at the time, and didn't want to get into explaining why "repeat for each" would be a favored way to do the same thing. Both reviewers made comments about code things, and where possible I adjusted it in a way that would still be easy enough to follow, but that would answer their criticism. I'm quite sure there will still be a bunch of things in there that are dubious, and I'm looking forward to some lengthy debates here in the future! On Jul 22, 2012, at 9:21 AM, Keith Clarke wrote: > >I need some kind of best practice 'straight and narrow' path, amidst all the > >brilliant, creative but divergent '100 ways to roll your own' ideas that > >seem to fill the LiveCode universe. ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: breakdown of my book (LiveCode Mobile Development)...
...yep, jumped in, too - thanks Colin. As an old dog learning a new trick with development - and with LiveCode as my first step beyond HTML - I need some kind of best practice 'straight and narrow' path, amidst all the brilliant, creative but divergent '100 ways to roll your own' ideas that seem to fill the LiveCode universe. Here's hoping it's financially successful, so that others see the potential in helping create some LiveCode best practice guides, to prevent each and every would-be LiveCode developer from having to shove their hands into every fire to learn everything from scratch, the hard way. Best, Keith.. On 21 Jul 2012, at 23:42, Monte Goulding wrote: > Cool... 20% off. I got mine. > > -- > M E R Goulding > Software development services > > mergExt - There's an external for that! > > On 21/07/2012, at 8:24 PM, Ken Corey wrote: > >> I am definitely in the "so much left to learn" camp. >> >> I'd like to buy the book...and you've whetted my appetite...but no link? >> >> Well, let's just fix that: >> Packt web page, with ebook and paper versions : http://bit.ly/OKMkTQ >> B&N dead tree version : http://bit.ly/LzzT9v >> >> I preordered mine on Packt as an ebook. >> >> Enjoy that lunch on me! >> >> All the best. >> >> -Ken >> >> ___ >> use-livecode mailing list >> use-livecode@lists.runrev.com >> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription >> preferences: >> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode > > ___ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: breakdown of my book (LiveCode Mobile Development)...
Colin, Thanks for the posting the outline to your book, it looks perfect for what I need to learn next, I'll definitely be buying a copy and I hope it's a big success for you. Paul ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
breakdown of my book (LiveCode Mobile Development)...
I see that B&N have my book listed as being available on August 3rd. Amazon still shows it as September 2nd, but the publisher only just decided to bring it forward by a month, presumably Amazon's date will change. I was going to hold off describing the book until I knew exact dates, but as it's the weekend, and we have topics going on about books at the moment, I may as well do this now. I don't know if you can imagine this problem, but in general it doesn't take up much space to describe how you would do things in LiveCode, and the brief for this book said that it should be 200-300 pages. Ponder that for a moment, how would you fill out all those pages? Screenshots help, some of those LiveCode dialogs are pretty big! Before even getting the job I had to write up an outline of all of the chapters, giving page number estimates. I would think about the topic, guess how many pages it would take to talk about that, and then I would double the number! Still it didn't add up to much, so I doubled it again! My estimate was over 200 pages, but I had no real ida what I was actually going to write, and in some cases I didn't even know the topic I was going to describe. As it happens, in the end (including the index and "intentionally blank pages") the book is 235 pages. I didn't want to describe things slowly, or just use big words, so the approach I took was to describe several aspects of the groundwork you might do in achieving the main task in the chapter, leading up to using that knowledge in tackling the main example in the chapter. It does mean though that at least half of the book is talking about things that don't have to relate to mobile, but wherever possible I would use mobile features in conduction with non-mobile techniques, to at least make it slightly relevant to the book! There isn't anything in the book that you couldn't find by searching in Google, or asking questions here, but it did take a good amount of time to track down some of the information. I will hope that anyone who gets the book will save enough time to justify the cost. Just think of it as you buying me lunch! Each chapter starts with a few bullet points that list the things to be covered in that chapter. Other things will still be covered, but it's a good indication of the main things covered. Here is a list of those entries from all of the chapters, along with the chapter title: Chapter 1 - LiveCode Fundamentals • Become familiar with the LiveCode environment • Investigate the hierarchy of a LiveCode "stack" • Create a simple calculator application • Learn about the many different interface controls Chapter 2 - Getting Started with LiveCode Mobile • Sign up for Android Market • Sign up for Amazon Appstore • Download and install the Android SDK • Configure LiveCode so that it knows where to look for the Android SDK • Become an iOS developer with Apple • Download and install Xcode • Configure LiveCode so that it knows where to look for the iOS SDKs • Set up simulators and physical devices • Test a stack in a simulator and physical device Chapter 3 - Building User Interfaces • Set up a "test bed" mobile application • Open e-mail and browser windows • Show a date picker control • Load pictures from the library and camera • Make an iOS looking button • Manually lay out an interface • Use code to lay out an interface • Look at a powerful mobile interface controls add-on Chapter 4 - Using Remote Data and Media • Look at the various ways a stack might be structured • Think about where code should go • Write to and read from external text files • Create a scrapbook-like app for remembering interesting Internet based media files Chapter 5 - Making a Jigsaw Puzzle Application • Examine the way that LiveCode stores bitmap data in an image object • Find a way to use a single bitmap in place of 50 buttons • Make a collision detection map • Create a jigsaw puzzle app that takes advantage of several mobile device features Chapter 6 - Making a Reminder Application • Discuss what is meant by a "reminder" • Create some time-measuring utility functions • Define a data structure for storing information about an event • Make use of mobile device "notifications" • Create a flexible reminders app Chapter 7 - Deploying to Your Device • Examine all the Standalone Application Settings options that relate to creating mobile apps • Create builds of an app so that it can be sent to beta testers • Build a final distribution version of an app • Review how to upload apps to the iOS App Store, Amazon App
