Corona for regular Applications?

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Hi

I have just downloaded Corona trial version in my Mac and did the first Corona at a glance tutorial finding it easy to understand. I have to say that so far I liked what I have seen, but did not have much time to get into the documentation and the API in a serious mode. I want to start developing some ideas I have to iPhone and place in AppStore but before starting to purchase and to lear, I wanted to know if with Corona is possible to create Applications (no games, no graphical stuff), I mean Applications that use the Cocoa UI (using text boxes, sliders, buttons, etc…).

My first impression is that Corona only works for games and graphical applications.

If the answer is no, then I think the only solution is to start learning Object-C and Cocoa.

Thanks for your responses.

Regards, [import]uid: 10072 topic_id: 2713 reply_id: 302713[/import]

#2

Hi cmrabet,

Yes Corona can be used for normal apps, and it’s especially good because you can export for iPhone/iPad/Android all from the same source.

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#3

Well, if you want to use native controls then there isn’t much in Corona. The WebPopUp, the keyboard, the textfield and the textbox. Other things have to be simulated by your own code and graphics. Look into the code section, there is already an listview, slider and a toogle switch.

But yes, Corona can be used for applications too. If you want complete control and every feature there is, then uses ObjC and Cocoa. [import]uid: 5712 topic_id: 2713 reply_id: 8072[/import]

#4

@cmrabet

Check out three non games apps created with Corona:

http://blog.anscamobile.com/2010/09/opengl-and-html/
http://blog.anscamobile.com/2010/09/pillbox-app-powered-by-ansca-coming-soon-to-iphone-ipad-and-android-marketplaces-gov20-g2s/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/esp-experience/id387902156

For sliders, buttons, and related UI stuff, both ansca staff and our developer community open source a lot of framework code at our code-exchange portal

http://developer.anscamobile.com/code/

And more and more Corona platform agnostic UI frameworks are being added regularly, so your application will look the same in iOS and Android devices.

Carlos [import]uid: 24 topic_id: 2713 reply_id: 8080[/import]

#5

Once in-app purchasing is available, we’re going to be developing a non-game application so that’ll be another non-game proof you’ll have on top of the examples carlos provided.

I find that Corona provides some of the most useful UI features (textboxes, web popups, keyboard entry, etc), and anything else you need outside of that is definitely POSSIBLE to program in. In fact, although those things are included when you program an app in Objective-C, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t take more code to do an improvisation in Corona (probably less; because most things take a relatively small amount of code to accomplish). [import]uid: 7849 topic_id: 2713 reply_id: 8121[/import]

#6

The native works only on the device, right?
[import]uid: 3826 topic_id: 2713 reply_id: 8920[/import]

#7

Saw the BrainMask’s Guitar app.

Since I am new to Corona, is there an inbuilt library to display a group of images in a scrollable view?

The TableView on the iPhone is more like a details view in Finder, how can I have the Icons view of Finder, where I can see the icons in a tabular format?

thanks and cheers,

Jayant C Varma [import]uid: 3826 topic_id: 2713 reply_id: 8921[/import]

#8

I’d just like to throw in my 2-cents, that I’d much prefer platform specific UI as opposed to platform agnostic UI. I have a background in user experience, and one thing that is clear in that world is that it’s almost always better to have an app designed for a platform, than it is a unified app across platforms.

The idea is pretty simple - The individual people (customers) who use your app, use that platform, which means they’ve become accustomed to many other apps on that platform. They don’t care that your app looks the same on the platforms they don’t use. I’m sure you guys already know this, and you have your reasons - but personally I think more platform-local controls would be VERY positive for many of your users.

Also, I know that not all of us are here because of the cross-platform capabilities of Corona. While I understand that’s a very positive aspect, I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to focus on a single platform, for now (and if that changes, I’d be happy to put the work into controls that make the most sense for each platform because that’s what’s best for my customers).

[import]uid: 10553 topic_id: 2713 reply_id: 9096[/import]