LiveCode workshops – learning & coding with others

Sometimes nothing is better than having someone right beside you showing you how to do something. It’s nice to have someone with whom you can discuss a tricky point or who can observe you making the mistake you weren’t aware you were making.

In other words, sometimes there is nothing better than being around people!

When learning LiveCode, we can turn to a growing collection of excellent online courses and learning materials – but we tend to be short of opportunities to go and learn LiveCode with others physically present. Being able to ‘talk LiveCode’ with others and perhaps show some code and demo an app (and see their code and their app) is good fun and a REALLY good way to learn.

So, if you ever get the chance to attend a LiveCode Users Group or a workshop, then do go! Catch that train, make the effort, and it will be worthwhile. One of the best examples of this people-in-the-same-room effect is at LiveCode conferences – attend if you can, you won’t regret it.

Don’t stay at home being techy, come out and be techy with others!

So if LiveCode user groups and workshops and conferences are so great, why don’t we have more of them? Because they take work to set up and maintain – and because the number of LiveCode users is still growing.

And actually, the other reason we don’t have more of them is because you haven’t set one up yet. Lots of LiveCoders put on sessions at their local school or somewhere else – and enjoy it.

With this in mind, I’ve been playing around with the idea of starting up a LiveCode Users Group in the South West of England for several years – and recently met up with Rob Wick from THINQTANQ, who also likes the idea of spreading tech as widely as possible – and we decided to put on a LiveCode workshop!

LiveCode workshop Saturday 28th March – just the beginning?

Yes! We’re putting on a workshop! Check it out and come along if you can. The day will be aimed at beginners and will have a ‘widgets for desktops’ theme – further info on what I’m planning is here, but my cunning plan is to assess demand for possible follow-on workshops on iOS and Android – and maybe occasional LiveCode meetups – and maybe I’ll reach out to a LiveCode Users Group! The possibilities are endless!

I’ll be offering a smorgasbord of widgets that participants can choose from on the day:

• Monitor a Directory for Changes
• Create a PDF of a ‘form’ Document
• Scrub Text
• Encrypt/Decrypt
• Execute a Shell Command
• Clock Timer
• Calculator
• Simple Newsreader

Each of these things are super easy to make with LiveCode and I’m hoping we can make at least two of them on the 28th whilst taking people from zero to LiveCode converts ready for more… I’ll let you know how we get on.

Are you putting on a LiveCode event in your local area? I’d love to hear about it (and so would lots of other LiveCoders…)

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I’m Dave Kilroy, my company is Application Insight and I make software with love and electrons in the heart of Devon (mobile, desktop, server) – using LiveCode obviously…