Adam Hyde

“I think LiveCode made it possible for our organization to produce this app. Without it, we wouldn’t have had the ability to do it.”

Adam is a Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Volunteer. His team needed an easy way to educate boaters about water safety, so they created a Safe Boating App with LiveCode that details all the ins and outs of boating safety and educates boaters with the aim to protect and save their lives.

1. Please tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a search and rescue volunteer with the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue on the west coast of Canada in British Columbia. We’re a volunteer organization dedicated to safe boating and search and rescue operations.

2. When did you start using LiveCode?

I started using LiveCode in January of 2013. I was looking at teaching myself a bit of programming and I had an idea for an app that I wanted to put in the App Store for the iPhone. I had been hunting around to see what options there were in terms of programming – I’m not a programmer, I’ve never programmed, although I have worked in the high tech industry for a long time, managing groups of techs and programmers.

3. What did you think of LiveCode?

It seemed intuitive. Within a few months, I had a working prototype of my app.

4. What was your app for?

The goal of the app was to be a safe boating app for the general boater in British Columbia. The app would give boaters all the information they needed to know. i.e. How to call for help, what boaters should do in terms of departure checklists before going out on the water, what safety equipment they should carry, how to follow anchoring procedures, and how to deal with surprises while you’re out in terms of reporting hazards, etc. It is an all-in boating app.

5. Did LiveCode make things easier?

I think LiveCode made it possible for our organization to produce this app. Without it, we wouldn’t have had the ability to do it. No one in our organization would have had the time that would be required to do an app from scratch using Xcode or one of those other options. The development time was relatively quick. …The experience was really good. With the forums, I was able to get answers to the major questions I had during the development process.

6. How long did it take you to build the app?

Essentially, I had the app done within about 3 months and the app went live in the App Store 3 months later, in June. It’s called Safe Boating. And it’s been a success. We’ve had 4 out of 5 star reviews with it. We’ve had really good, positive feedback from all of our members and the general public seems to be downloading it. It really helps further our mandate of educating boaters and hopefully it will save some lives as well.

7. What was your biggest challenge in developing the app?

My biggest challenge in developing the app was probably the issue of screen size. I decided to start it at the platform of the iPhone 4 and that screen res, but I also wanted it to support the iPhone 5, which I use and I realize is probably more indicative of future iPhone purchases. I grappled with that for a long time and ended up kind of cheating a bit in the sense that I developed the app so that most of the screens scroll and so it doesn’t really matter the length of the screen on an iPhone 4 vs. an iPhone 5.

8. What’s next for you?

I think we’ll probably do some iterative changes to the app with LiveCode, but I think the organization’s pretty happy with where it is right now. I’m personally looking at opportunities with LiveCode. I think it’s a great platform and I’d love to get out there and teach it to other budding, young programmers.

9. Anything else you’d care to add?

LiveCode is a great platform and a great organization. I’d highly recommend it.