[stam66]

Hi Mark & team

I have a recollection that when Appli was first announced, there was a requirement to have a LiveCode licence as well (please do correct me if I'm miss-remembering).

Quick question: Is that still la requirement? 
If so, how does that work with the multiple licences and changes in LiveCode which is now being sunsetted in 3 years, to be replaced with LiveCode Create? (a little bit academic right now as for the foreseeable future I will have a liveCode licence anyway)

Many thanks
Stam

[marktalluto]

Hi Stam,

You do not need a LiveCode license to use Appli. Appli is a standalone platform that has legal access to the LiveCode engine for building native apps that provides a different take on no-code, low-code, and scripting.

- A little background may be helpful.
We started developing Appli in January of 2018. We cycled through many potential business models. We took the following three ideas seriously.

Idea #1: Build a plugin to facilitate data-binding of LiveCodes fields with our LiveCloud database. The pricing model would naturally require an LC license and a tier on the LiveCloud service.
The result showed it could be done. But it left us wondering how we could do more for the community.

Idea #2: Build a more feature rich plug-in that would allow for a tight integration of the scripting language in LiveCode with our new IDE concept. The pricing model would be a LiveCode license, an IDE license, and LiveCloud tier pricing.
The result was more of a thought process than an actual working example. We thought it might be too confusing to introduce our IDE with low-code bubble scripting and a cloud backend to a population of developers who loved things the way they were.

Idea #3: Build a standalone IDE and go crazy with our ideas on developing apps faster. The pricing model would be a standalone tiered pricing. We adopted this model after some cheerful plans with the LiveCode company.
Additionally, we made a plug-in that would copy LC script from an LC stack to Appli. The experience worked, but it was awkward. Instead, we created a simple script editor in Appli.

Once we had a rudimentary version of our IDE, we demoed Appli to the LiveCode team. They loved the idea and fully supported our goals to further Appli's development. We bounced around ideas of how to work this into a model that supported LiveCode. We negotiated a contract that provided us full access to LiveCode's engine.

We have always wanted to find ways to support LiveCode's mission by building great apps with the tool and providing developers a way to get to market sooner. It started with our SpiceKit framework, which provided auto-update, licensing, registration, CRM, in-app purchasing for desktops, and other useful features. We then made LiveCloud, and later Appli to round out our offering to developers.

Appli is an excellent example of what can be created in LiveCode. It demonstrates that LiveCode Classic is powerful and genuinely boundless in possibilities. We do not see Appli as a competitor to LiveCode. For example, you can create Appli in LiveCode, but you can not create LiveCode in Appli.

We continue to work with LiveCode as they transition to a new chapter in their story. I believe there is more we can do together to bring powerful development experiences to users worldwide. Finally, I wholeheartedly think there is great value left in LC Classic.

[stam66]

Thanks for the detailed reply Mark, very interesting and informative!
I could not agree with you more about LiveCode's utility.
Appli's simplicity (sometimes a bit too simple!) but predominantly the ease of distributing apps is the key attraction and I'm excited to test this :)
You guys have done great work here!

Sadly my time available to coding has evaporated into nothingness right now, so progress is slow, but I'm hoping to make a moderate-complexity app as proof of concept (we chatted about this already). I am developing the same in parallel using LiveCode + LiveCloud. Will be an interesting comparison in the end...

[marktalluto]

I am very interested in your early journey with Appli and your comparison using LC Classic and LiveCloud. Please reach out to us as needed. We are here to help.