Software I use

Here is how I develop Learning Applications. Over the years, I have used several authoring platforms. My last one (Adobe Director) was abandoned by its developer and I have had to switch to something else. After extensive research, I found Livecode. It is a highly evolved  graphical programming environment that has its distant roots in Hypercard. It is used by many educators to create sophisticated learning applications. I have found it to be a powerful and easy to use software development tool. Link to the “LiveCode“site here.

Strengths:

  • Supports OSX, Windows and Linux desktops, iOS and Android mobile platforms.
  • Free open source version available, with options for commercial deployment at additional cost.
  • Graphical point and click interface building
  • Great for education
  • Excellent feature set, including database access, sftp, a beautiful built-in browser widget, standard interface widgets, standard icons, and more.
  • English language-like coding
  • Active and supportive users group
  • Engaged developer team with bugs often being fixed within a week or so.

Limitations:

  • No strong web deployment, except as a cgi. At additional cost, an HTML5 export version is in development. Technology is moving away from browser plug-ins, so investing in plug-in technology, like Flash is probably not a good idea.
  • Animation is supported, but somewhat limited. I will post an animated presentation soon, to show what can be done.
  • No 3-D
  • No physics engine. This has been discussed and will eventually be added. This limits its use in action games.

I converted the Plate Tectonics Explorer application from one I made with Adobe Director, which has become an obsolete platform and no longer developed by Adobe.  The Plate Tectonics Explorer requires sophisticated data plotting, accessing DEM’s, graphics display and manipulation, network support, and other advanced capabilities. Livecode does an exceptional job of supporting these needs.

Download the “Community” (free) edition of LiveCode here.

Download stacks I’ve created with Livecode

Updated: 1/9/2017

Applications that support learning about the Earth