LiveCode 7.0.3: a new meme

[Terence Heaford]

> On 26 Feb 2015, at 20:45, Richard Gaskin <ambassador at fourthworld.com> wrote:
> 
> #2 Priority: Performance
> ———————————

I am only a mere Community user who recently started using LC (perhaps 12 months or so) and have no axe to grind and do not carry any baggage regarding LC so I hope my comments are taken on face value.

My Bank does not maintain financial records for very long so I thought I would try to develop an application in LC that can use and store the data downloaded on a monthly basis in OFX format. I thought this would be a good evaluation of LC.

Importing OFX proved no problem.

Storing the data in an SQLite database was no problem.

Displaying the data in charts (pie, bar and line) has proved good.

Printing the charts has been straightforward.

Printing out reports has been straightforward.

I am sure all the above could have been scripted better but have been successful.

—————

Now to the one area where I have been less than happy.

I have posted before about the performance of DataGrids and the performance is still lagging in comparison to other development environments.

Visually this is one area where you can tell your solution is scripted rather than compiled.

I am currently using 6.7.3 rather than 7.0.3 because the scrolling of the DataGrid is better in 6.7.3 when compared to 7.0.3..
6.7.3 is not good but is better that 7.0.3 in my estimation by about 10-15%.

I started with a DataGrid that loaded all the data in one hit but as the number of records rose to >2000 I changed to the large data format for the data grid.

The DataGrid consists of 6 columns:

Date, Type, Description, Amount, Balance, Category.

Dates are stored as seconds in the database.

I know the DataGrid is a scripted solution and in it’s day was a solution that other scripting apps did not have but today with LC being touted as THE solution I have to say the DataGrid has seen it’s day.

I suppose LC’s engineers have 2 or perhaps 3 or even 4 options to solve this issue, they should certainly not defend it, rather accept it’s limitations and try to solve them. The solutions I see are:

1. Adjust the code in LC 7 to speed up scrolling.

2. Make the DataGrid part of the engine.

3. Incorporate a native solution (NSTableView, Mac).

4. Ignore the situation until LC 8 and leave it to developers to design their own widget.

Number 4 is a concern. With widgets, is it LC’s intention to allow these to be designed and sold by other developers? If this is the case then the extreme turn of events maybe that LC do nothing for UI but leave it to widget developers and this increases the potential cost for developers.



I hope my comments are taken as an effort to proactively comment of how I see LC for me, as a newish user.


All the best

Terry