Thanks to @alansgandy of the TechPinata Blog for our first review of the LiveCode Summer Academy. Alan starting looking into iOS a year ago but was struggling to grasp Apple’s X-code and found the learning curve too steep on Objective-C. He shelved his plans for making an iPad App.

Fortunately, Alan ‘stumbled upon some rapid development tools’ suitable for a non-programmer like Alan. So Alan joined the LiveCode Summer Academy, our free online course to help non-programmers like Alan learn to write iOS and Android apps easily.

Here’s what he said about it:

“I plunged into LiveCode by enrolling in a promotion dubbed the Summer Academy. This free program is designed to introduce novice developers to the LiveCode platform. Weekly webinars with coursework are assigned to the participants in this 8 week program. The course culminates with a finished application fit for publishing. Along the way, the learners have a message board for discussions and helpful support from the RunRev staff. I really enjoy the amount of work that RunRev has put into this program, hopefully others can follow this model.”

Unlike Objective-C or X-Code, LiveCode uses an English like programming language that is intuitive and easy to learn.  As Alan says “This makes interpreting what a program does easy for a beginner. It also makes that learning curve much flatter.”

We started the LiveCode Summer Academy program because we recognised how difficult it is to learn a new language, for novices and experienced programmers alike. Every LiveCode Summer Academy lesson had a clear structure and purpose and each week built on the knowledge that had gone before. Lots of background reading was provided and we even made available notes from Brigham Young Universities LiveCode course and from Gracemount High Schools LiveCode course.

“Overall, I like LiveCode for developing mobile apps. The interface is intuitive and the scripts are easy to edit. Not having to decipher the various symbols involved with a lower level language makes for a pleasant learning experience. The staff and community is very involved and supportive. It seems like there is a place for experienced and non experienced coders to co-exist and learn from each other.”

Thanks TechPinata Blog, I couldn’t have put it better myself.