28 February 2013

Make news aggregation easy

Hindu Press International is a popular blog which aggregates key news items. The editors have been provided with a very lean, simple desk top app written in LiveCode.  It helps them get their job done without having to know anything about HTML, FTP or other web technologies. They simply enter stories into a single field and the application parses the stories, generates the blog post, and pushes the post to the web server where it's instantly on line.




27 February 2013

Add Post Production Effects and Edges to Images

Obleo Beck used LiveCode to develop Image Blender, a digital imaging tool for adding imaging frames, edges, image effects and more. It lets you add the finishing touch to make your images really snap with professional quality.




26 February 2013

Help children learn to read

Chris Sheffield, with a little help from Scott Rossi, used LiveCode to develop One Minute Reader for Read Naturally, Inc.. It's an iPad app that provides learners a structured reading programme that applies research-based principles to keep them on track. Its engaging content helps them develop reading fluency, enhances their vocabulary and promotes comprehension.












25 February 2013

Build a battleship game

Scott Rossi produced this prototype battleship game with LiveCode.


Simplify geographical mapping

Map Grabber was written in LiveCode by Graham Samuel as an add-on to an existing simplified Geographical Information System (GIS) which runs on PCs and is designed to introduce school children to geographical mapping. Map Grabber allows the user (a pupil or a teacher) to download a very large map from a public database, and to select a smaller 'tile' of the map interactively. The tile is selected from a miniaturised version of the original large map, and then passed in its original resolution to the GIS program. Map Grabber is deliberately designed to be easy to use.


24 February 2013

Create fast-paced action games

Obleo Beck developed Pop Tone with LiveCode. It's a fast pace casual action board game for iPad with three game play modes.



Build a set of educational tools

Ludovic Thébault used LiveCode to build and then pull together a compendium of educational apps. It covers learning letters, the keyboard, mathematical operations, conjugating verbs and much more.



23 February 2013

Get work, track work, bill work ... on the go


Andy Piddock is working on an Android Quotation, Job tracking, Invoicing and Reporting app. Written in LiveCode, it syncs to an online MySQL database and has a web based admin panel for employers to push jobs to their workers out in the field. 



Keep better control of your stock

Encres Dubuit, a french manufacturer of printing inks, used LiveCode to build a front-end to their ERP system for stock entry. It allows them to add many specific controls during the process and as a result significantly reduce the risk of human error.


22 February 2013

Add a fully searchable index to your eBooks

James Hale is developing a search and annotation tool for ePubs in LiveCode. It will be just like getting all your ePub books indexed even when the book doesn't have an index itself.

It uses the XML and SQLITE libraries that are part of Livecode to read in an ePub and uses the full text search capabilities of SQLITE to perform near instantaneous text searches. The screenshot shows the search panel after three words have been entered and one possible combination chosen to display.


Prepare photo galleries for publication

Himalayan Academy Publications keeps a central folder on its Local Area Network server where content contributors can drop photo sets. They have a LiveCode app called Caption Writer which their editors can use to access these folders. The interface allows for the editor to write captions for each photo, a story for the gallery and then with the click of a button generate all the HTML and JavaScript needed for a Galleria slideshow post. The app automatically opens WordPress on the server with the post sitting on the clipboard ready to go. 


 

21 February 2013

Build interactive pocket floral guides

Ludovic Thébault has developed a beautiful iPhone floral guide to Alpes-Maritimes, the department of France which includes the Riviera.










Drag n' drop song composition

Scott Rossi put together this easy to use music app using draggable "tiles" to control a music player, part of a kids' music instruction software package.



Develop and run your corporate web site

Encres Dubuit is a French ink manufacturer listed on the Paris stock exchange. They developed their website in LiveCode to run under LiveCode server.




20 February 2013

Let children safely experiment with electricity and save light bulbs

Some time ago Graham Samuel wrote a program with LiveCode to allow kids to experiment with simple electrical circuits without using up lightbulbs. The program runs on PC and Mac and is sold to UK schools by an educational publisher, SoftTeach. Recently Graham created a version that runs on iPad - the new version took just a few hours, despite the fact that the iPad didn't exist when the original program was created. The screenshot shows the iPad version.



Manage factory production

Encres Dubuit is a french manufacturer of printing inks (screen printing, pad printing, inkjet etc.). They are listed on the Paris stock exchange. They use Sage X3 as their ERP system for sales, inventory management, accounting, etc..

The heart of their business, ink production, is managed by a large LiveCode application that is linked to the ERP system (for inventory movements for instance) and to a local MySQL server.







Simulate landscape lighting effects

Scott Rossi developed this extremely realistic lighting simulator in LiveCode.


Make a skinnable iTunes controller

Scott Rossi developed this skinnable iTunes controller in LiveCode.



19 February 2013

Manage files on a Mac

Obleo Beck used LiveCode to develop File Mutation Pro which allows you to fully manage your files on a Mac. It moves, copies, cleans and organises folders of files, archive files to disk image and zip archives. 

If that wasn't enough, it also allows you to change file meta data, convert and process images, convert images, audio, videos, web archives and documents. It does all of its work quietly in the background.



Just-in-time app creation for classroom use

Randy Hengst teaches in the Education Department at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. I'll let him explain:


"All our students who are majoring in elementary education have iPads. They help develop ideas for new apps or ideas for ways to update existing apps. They work with kindergarten students using our apps as part of their experience in schools while taking our methods courses. The cool thing about LiveCode is how quickly I can make an app for them to use… sometimes it's literally within days of when they share their ideas."

Here's just three of the apps.


Add Sub K-2

Practice Addition facts through 10 and Subtraction facts up to 20 minus 10. Adjust the addends separately for your problems in the a+b=c form. Make separate selections for the minuend and subtrahend when solving a-b=c problems.

You may also select to use three addends in the form of a+b+c=x+y or a+b+c=x. A subtraction option for a-b=x-y is also provided. 




10 Frame Fill

Provides children practice with recognizing additive "10 Families" (e.g., 1 and 9, 2 and 8, etc.). Set the 10 Frame to fill in sequence or randomly. Use contrasting color chips to fill the 10 frame as you determine the answer.



Line 'em Up

Designed to promote kindergarteners' mastery of number order. This app replicates a simple classroom activity in which children place number tiles, 1-100, in order from least to greatest.









Edit videos made with your digital camera

Have you ever shot a video with your digital camera in landscape orientation? I have. You can only watch it by turning your head 90º! 

Obleo Beck used LiveCode to come up with a solution. His Movie Whirl is a video tool for editing video that was exported from digital (still) cameras. Not only can it rotate a video that was shot in portrait to landscape, it can also flip, export a single image from a video frame and convert video formats.


18 February 2013

Develop engaging tutorials

Michael Lew, senior lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Melbourne, used LiveCode to develop an engaging tutorial for students to learn how drugs interact with their receptors.


Help people decide how to invest social funds

Dave Kilroy was asked to create something that would help people decide how money should be invested in a local area, the choices were to invest funds in:

  • Personal Loans (loans to local residents)
  • Business Lending (loans to local commercial businesses)
  • Civil Society Lending (social enterprises, community businesses etc)
There was data on how lending to each of these groups might affect an area, but it was complex and hard to understand. His client needed a tool to help local people understand the policy implications of funding choices on their communities, and as a result make the best decision for their area.

The tool was created incrementally whilst liaising with community development and investment experts and the finished tool was used in communities lucky enough to receive National Lottery funding throughout the UK.

The first screen shows how a simple 'dynamic' pie chart (which users can drag to change the size of 'slices' in the pie) can be used to give the user control over three inter-related variables.


The second screenshot shows the results of the choices made in the first screen in a series of charts each showing some aspect.


17 February 2013

Help navigate a boat

Paul Hibbert recently attended a boating course, I'll let him tell the story.


"During the boating course they taught how to do chart plotting calculations manually using a regular calculator. The potential for a LiveCode app to make life easier soon became obvious, so after an evening of playing around with some code I came up with a nautical calculator app on my PC.

The next stage was getting the app onto my iPhone. The LiveCode Mobile Development Beginners Guide by Colin Holgate was an invaluable resource, it just took away all the uncertainty and answered all of the questions I came up against.

After a few more evenings reading Colin's book, the app was on my iPhone ready for the next boating lesson, my homework was a breeze after that and I passed the course with ease."



Simulate the effect of drugs

Michael Lew, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne, developed a range of simulators in LiveCode for university student practicals that can be used instead of feeding drugs to animals. This one is an agonist concentration-reponse curve simulator.



Generate tiled images

Jacqueline Landman Gay's business is programming with LiveCode and usually she's working on client projects. She also uses LiveCode to produce small utilities that are quick to make and solve some little personal need.


For instance, she uses a lot of tiled images in different projects. She wrote this quick utility in LiveCode to select an image and see how it looks when it's tiled. The whole working part of the app is only 8 lines of code.




Cloud based training management

Phil Davis built a training manager app that is used to create training accounts, generate licensing, track usage, set training account permissions and training features, and manage training titles. All the data it manages is in the cloud. The "cloud" server code is all LiveCode.


Make an interactive classroom seating chart

Cyril Pruszko is a teacher and wrote a Seating Chart App to help keep track of his classes. He explained:

"I can drag and drop students to different seats, tap on seats to take attendance, grade assignments while I walk around the room, print seating charts for substitutes and many other time-saving tasks. I could not imagine doing this very easily in any other language."




Teach students about anaesthetics

Michael Lew, senior lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Melbourne, used LiveCode to develop a simulator to teach medical and veterinary students about the movement of anaesthetics around the body.


Organise the distribution of promotional materials

A division of one of the world's most prestigious watch makers asked Simon Asato to help them streamline their distribution of promotional materials to retailers. They wanted the retail shops to be able to order displays, posters, duratrans etc. from a single source. He used LiveCode to build an app that shows current visual campaigns and allows retailers to place orders either via email or print to pdf. The app runs on multiple devices. This is what it looks like on an iPad.





Help non-speaking people learn to communicate

Thomas McGrath III developed "Minspeak Story Time" for iPads in LiveCode. It tells the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears using the Minspeak Language used in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices.








Make it easy for your clients to send you files

Andy Piddock's client wanted an easy way for their customers to send large files  to them. He developed a custom FTP client application using LiveCode for them. The users can simply drag & drop the files onto the app and, with one click, upload them to Andy's customer's server. Andy built-in the necessary measures to secure the application. The application even sends his customer an email once it has sent the files to the server.


Make statistics and admin easier

Michael Lew, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne, makes extensive use of LiveCode. That includes making it easier to calculate statistical summaries such as confidence intervals.




 He also uses LiveCode to simplify his administrative tasks.



Michael told me "Without Livecode my job would be harder and my students would think me boring."

Teach people to use their speaking devices

Thomas McGrath III used LiveCode to create an iPad App that teaches people how to use the Minspeak Icons used in the Unity language on Prentke Romich Corporation devices.






Get the exact details of a colour from your screen

Andy Piddock wanted a better colour picker to use when he was developing web pages. He wrote one in LiveCode for his own use. His colleagues and friends kept asking him where they could get a copy, so he made available, free of charge at Point and See.



Build a training content development and delivery system

Phil Davis built a complete training content development and delivery system in LiveCode for a client. The "Builder" app is used to create interactive training in any of several human languages with text, movies, images and audio.






The training content is delivered through a desktop training app for people who may not have an internet connection.




The content can be delivered through the browser to people who have an internet connection.




Phil commented "There is no way on earth my client could have afforded to fund the development of this system were it not for LiveCode!"