LiveCode Global Jam: May 23 and 24

Many open source projects have “global jam” events to rally their community around specific initiatives, and in the LiveCode world we have a big task ahead of us: testing LiveCode 7.0.

This first LiveCode Global Jam will take place May 23 and 24, with the goal of bringing as many interested LiveCode fans together to make a difference with one of the most ambitious LiveCode versions ever.

Version 7.0 includes a wide range of new features, including not only Unicode, but also folding in the OS X Cocoa support and more. With so much going into it, it can become a solid reference version for all of our work with LiveCode going forward – provided we take the time to test it thoroughly before release.

The theme of this first LiveCode Global Jam is “7th Heaven”, sharing a vision with the community for a new version that’s the most capable and stable version ever. To make this happen we’ll need as many people testing it as we can get – and that’s where you come in.

If you can set aside even just an hour during the Global Jam to help test with your projects, it’ll help us all a lot.

Prior to the Global Jam we’ll be providing testing guidelines so you can test copies of your stack files safely, and if you find any errors we’ll include tips for delivering the type of report the dev team can act on quickly. Additionally, we’re putting together a team of volunteers to provide live support for testers, so if you have trouble pinning down a reproducible recipe for your bug report you’ll have people you can contact to help. While we’re submitting bug reports, the team at RunRev is committed to focusing on fixing any issues you find as they come in, in as close to real-time as possible.

But it wouldn’t be much fun if it was all work, so we also have two live Q&A video chats scheduled as well: LiveCode CEO Kevin Miller from Edinburgh and yours truly as LiveCode Community Manager from Los Angeles. The video chats will be held via Google Hangouts so you can submit questions there, and they’ll be recorded so you can watch any you miss later on YouTube.

For access to the event schedule, testing support contacts, and more, you needn’t look any further than your installed copy of LiveCode: the LiveCode Global Jam is being managed via RevNet, accessed through the GoRevNet plugin included in the Development->Plugins menu.

We have a preliminary version of the Global Jam edition of RevNet in place now, and as we get close to the event you’ll find RevNet updated to include the latest info.

If you’d like to volunteer to help provide support for testers, host a video chat of your own, or have any suggestions for other activities for the LiveCode Global Jam, please send me an email and let’s make it happen. Many thanks to all of you who’ve been testing LiveCode 7, and for those of you who can spare some time to test during the Global Jam.

Together we can make this new version of LiveCode one we can be especially proud to share with the world.

Richard Gaskin

LiveCode Community Manager

richard@livecode.org