I had the idea of developing an app for a long time. Regardless of having a specific idea, the fun of programming itself was so fascinating. I have tried many times, but every time I failed after going one step further than "Hello, World!"

With LiveCode it was different. My initial contact was in early 2013. I finished my first app towards the end of 2014. Seems like a very long a learning period which certainly is not required for LiveCode. In fact, between RunRev Live 2013 and RunRev Live 2014 I havn't done any coding - not in lack of desire or motivation but I just didn't have the time, because of career reasons.

LiveCode was and currently is a hobby. Therefore, I wasn't pressed for time. However, after the conference in San Diego, the desire of developing something myself overwhelmed me. Another hobby of mine, learning to fly, gave me the idea for a first project: An app which calculates navigation courses fast and easily.

It was December 2014 when I started, setting my personal deadline in 3 months time. Indeed, it took me just 3 days. Maybe an experienced programmer could have done it in 3 hours. Nevertheless, due to my lack of any programming skills, this would not have been possible without LiveCode.

Because of the easy-to-understand syntax and structure of a LiveCode program, I could focus on the functionality of the app without wasting time with technicalities and "how" to build an app. While coding and trying intuitively to solve a problem I learned much about the structure of LiveCode. Finally, I got the point and I understood how "messages" are processed. I think this is one of the most important things you have to comprehend. Than putting code at the right spot and understanding how your program works comes easy.

Very useful for app development is the IDE: Code is immediately checked for any errors and the testing of the program on the fly reveals mistakes early and avoids spending a lot of time afterwards in checking the code line by line.

With the help of external tools such as MobGUI, it was easy to design the app interface fast and equip the input and output fields with appropriate functions. I was impressed of finding in the "Dictionary" a solution for almost every problem. In particular, using the right "handler" can save several lines of code.

In summary, starting an app development from scratch without having any programming experience and submitting an useful app to the AppStore already after 3 days would never have been possible for me without LiveCode.

So if this is possible within 3 days, what can I achieve within 3 weeks? We will see...

If you'd like to check out the VFR Course Calculator, you can find it here.