Today, we are excited to launch LiveCode 8. LiveCode 8 represents the next generation of our highly productive LiveCode coding environment for building mobile, desktop and cloud apps.
Three years in the making, this represents the fruition of our $750,000 Kickstarter funded project. LiveCode 8 is packed full of new features and enhancements to the LiveCode Platform.
The highlights of LiveCode 8 are covered below. We now even offer a free LiveCode Indy trial to test out everything that LiveCode 8 has to offer including the new extensions pack, so you can check the improvements for yourself.
To learn more about the LiveCode 8 series and see some demos, please join LiveCode CEO Kevin Miller and CTO Mark Waddingham on Monday May 9 at 9AM (PST), 12PM (EST) or 17:00 (UK) for a live webinar for a live webinar dedicated to What’s New in LiveCode 8. We’d love to see you there!
LiveCode Extensions
Widgets and libraries make building apps so fast!
Whether you want a browser widget, a clock, a graph or a full blown library to decode JSON webservices, LiveCode 8 has you covered. And if there isn’t a suitable widget or library yet for what you want to do, you can write it yourself far more easily than in the past.
Extension Highlights
Browser
LiveCode widgets can house powerful controls. Our new cross platform browser widget is a fully integrated web browser that can be dragged into your stack and controlled by adjusting a few properties. It’s also super fast!
Graph
You no longer need to code everyday objects like graphs. Just drag and drop, set your data and select a few colours. Presto, a beautiful graph to enhance your app.
JSON
Libraries are super powerful too and add new commands into the engine. Working with web services used to be tricky. LiveCode 8 now has a JSON library. Webservices have never been easier.
Clock
The clock shows off animation in a widget. Widgets run at engine level and can be rich in visual effects and movement. No need for clunky handlers with “wait” or “send in time”. Just smooth movement where you want it.
LiveCode Extension Pack
46 new extensions, widgets, externals and libraries to supercharge your app development.
Browser, Clock, Color Swatch, Gradient Editor, Icon Picker, SVG icon, Line Graph, Segmented, Tree, JSON, Accessory, FTPD, Social, ZXing, Map Kit, Doc, Banner, AV, Pop, CL, Settings, Dropbox, Reader, BLE, AES, Notify, MP, BgTask, NIC, Bonjour, AWS, GK, Socket, LA, Button, Google, AnswerColor, Device, Markdown, Microphone, Screen, rrehardcopy
3.5x Performance Boost
LiveCode 8 is on average 3.5 times faster than LiveCode 7
LiveCode relies heavily on strings. In LiveCode 8 we’ve completely rewritten our low level string and binary implementations for speed and performance. Then we did some benchmarking. The result is great performance for apps.
Robust to the Core
We’ve overhauled our engineering practices to help us deliver the highest quality products
Follow us on GitHub and you will see that every change to LiveCode is now put through its paces automatically before it is merged into the product. A series of steps including compiling, validating, manual review, testing and installer building ensures it meets our coding practices and standards. This attention to detail has resulted in us fixing over 1000 bugs in the 8 cycle, as well as addressing critical low level and previously hidden issues deep in the engine. LiveCode 8 is without question the most robust .0 release we have ever made.
New Deployment Option
Deploy your apps to the browser using our beta HTML5
The LiveCode engine has been compiled to Javascript meaning the apps you’ve written for desktop or mobile can now be deployed straight to the browser. While this option is still in its infancy you can already build useful apps for HTML5. Don’t spend thousands of $ porting your apps to the web or maintaining a web source base, just build once in LiveCode.
Version Control Support
Version Control is critical to efficient development workflow so we have added script only stacks
Script only stacks are text files and can be version managed using Git and other version control systems. Optimize your LiveCode development workflow whether you work alone or in a team.
Desktop Theming
LiveCode 8 looks great on Mac, Windows and Linux
It’s important that apps created with LiveCode can look “at home” on desktop platforms. LiveCode 8 now uses each platform’s theming APIs to make sure that, by default, your LiveCode stacks use the same colours, fonts, and font sizes as your operating system’s native apps.
Other LiveCode 8 Features
64 bit Mac
Apps built with LiveCode 8 for Mac now support both 32 and 64bit versions of Mac OS X.
Clipboard
Clipboard access has been overhauled providing access to many other forms of data via your clipboard.
Interactive Tutorials
Check out our all new in-product interactive introduction to LiveCode. Follow along as we guide you in building your first app.
Find and Replace
This Feature Exchange funded feature allows preserving or changing formatting of found strings, saving you time and effort.
Unicode Printing Linux
Improvements to the printing process mean pixel perfect printing of Unicode on Linux has been added.
PostgreSQL SSL Support
Another one successfully funded from the Feature Exchange. LiveCode can now talk securely to PostgreSQL databases on desktop.
Improved Object Editing
Resize handles on objects are now drawn on the top layer, meaning for example you can resize objects hidden by others, and handling line objects is now much easier.
New Dictionary
The dictionary both online and in-product has received a makeover. Many new terms have been added, and organisation and searchability improved.
New Property Inspector
The new Property Inspector is much more than just a beautiful modern facelift. Tabs, labels, preferences… in so many ways this revision makes working with your project a positive joy.
New Project Browser
The all new Project Browser is a leap forward in productivity for developers. New layout, icons, visible/invisible switches, easy select and more makes managing your LC projects easier than ever.
New Extension Manager
Install or uninstall extensions at the click of a button. Just select your extension, and click “install”. Job done.
New Extension Builder
Write your own extensions using LiveCode Builder, the brand new language that looks and feels eerily like the language you already know and love – LiveCode Script. Wrap system APIs and libraries, or create your own functionality from scratch.
If you would like to learn more about the LiveCode 8 series and see some demos, please join LiveCode CEO Kevin Miller and CTO Mark Waddingham on Monday May 9 at 9AM (PST), 12PM (EST) or 17:00 (UK) for a webinar dedicated to what’s new in LiveCode 8.
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