Features Needed

Solar2D Daily Builds and Public Releases
#1

I’m looking at Corona as my multiplatform development tool for a new project. I’ve looked through much of the documentation, but if something I mention here is already possible, please let me know. I’m definitely no expert here.

Here are things that I would need to do my application in Corona that I don’t really see:

  1. MUST have access to the Menu button in Android. Customers expect to get a popup menu of options when they press the Menu softkey. I see this on your Roadmap, but you need to bump this priority. I cannot create an Android app without this function.

  2. Better scalable graphics. Between iPhone, iPad, and all Android devices, resolutions and orientations are *very* different. Instead of using bitmaps with different resolutions, I’d really like to see support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) files. Your Rectangle, Circle, Polygon, etc support would just become subsets of what you could do with SVG objects.

  3. Ad support. I need to have a free version on the Android that uses the Google ad system. The Google tools for Android make this easy. I know Ads are less common on iPhone, but I must have this option before I can release a product. Even if I can only have a paid-app on iPhone, I need an ad-supported app for Android.

  4. More UI objects. I see a native TextField. But what about selection lists (drop-down lists), checkboxes, etc. I don’t see any sample apps showing a “Preferences” configuration screen where the user can set several options, checkboxes, radio buttons, etc. Coming from the Android platform where there are some really nice native widgets for this, I’m surprised not to see anything like this in Corona.

  5. Gesture and “swipe” support. Maybe you can already do this, but I need to allow the user to swipe across the screen horizontally to scroll between multiple screens. Sort of like the Tab View demo, but instead of tabs along the bottom, you swipe left and right to switch screens. Actually, adding this to the Tab View so that you can swipe *and* use the tabs would be great.

Finally, in general I’d like to see more focus on Android support. I’ve read about many problems in the forum and Corona is obviously built for iPhone first and Android second. Android numbers are quickly approaching/exceeding iPhone/iPad numbers and if you want developers to pay for Corona rather than using the free Android dev tools (Java/Eclipse) then you need to show that you are really going to support them for the long run and not just as an afterthought.

I hope you can add these features and keep up the good work. I love Lua as a language and would really love to use Corona if I could. The idea of using Objective C for iPhone and Java on Android with two separate sets of source code just makes me sick. [import]uid: 12529 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 304455[/import]

#2

re 5: really this is just a bit of maths along with touch events. I don’t think it’s necessarily required to make it a native part of the system, but someone could make a gestureUI.lua file to implement some of this

in Flash you do have native convenience functions that do this for you though

[as3]
import flash.events.TransformGestureEvent;
import flash.ui.Multitouch;

if(Multitouch.supportsGestureEvents){
this.addEventListener(TransformGestureEvent.GESTURE_ROTATE,
onGestureRotate);

this.addEventListener(TransformGestureEvent.GESTURE_ZOOM,
onGesturePinch);
}
[/as3]
[import]uid: 6645 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 14213[/import]

#3

re 5: As long as I can compute the gesture path myself, then I’ll probably be fine. I just really need to know the X,Y point that the gesture started and the basic path and end-point. Even just starting with linear “swipes” would be good enough. So it sounds like I can already do that.

re 2: I retract this request. I have done more research and now I understand better about SVG requiring better floating point than most phones can do. I’ll change my design to use the existing PNG and sprite systems with different image files for different device resolutions (like an HD version for iPad). That seems to be what everybody else does, so I should be able to make that work.

It would still be nice to have some sort of “colorize” API to change the color of a sprite so I could create gray-scale images and then color them as needed for my game.

#1 and #3 are still my top needs, with #4 close behind. With #4 you’d get a lot more non-game apps written using Corona. [import]uid: 12529 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 14258[/import]

#4

It would still be nice to have some sort of “colorize” API to change the color of a sprite so I could create gray-scale images and then color them as needed for my game.

I’m pretty new to Corona so I just assumed it had a colorize method for DisplayObjects. If there isn’t one already then yeah I would definitely second this request. [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 14288[/import]

#5

I’d like to pipe in with another vote for an ability to “colorize”…

Thanks for bringing that up guys, hope that’s implemented by ANSCA sooner rather than later! [import]uid: 4196 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 14328[/import]

#6

You mean like

http://gizmodo.com/5475886/this-is-why-i-want-photoshop-10-on-my-iphone-right-now

Listen to Russel about who did the app.

Carlos [import]uid: 24 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 14334[/import]

#7

Or better yet just scroll to the bottom of the article instead of waiting for the video to play. [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 14357[/import]

#8

Cool app. The more I read the more impressed I’m becoming with Corona. I still don’t see any “colorize” function in the API documentation, but I probably just need to go ahead and install Corona and start playing with the examples. It’s becoming clear that just looking through the API doesn’t really do Corona justice. [import]uid: 12529 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 14410[/import]

#9

the photoshop 20th app article stated they were using features unreleased yet… this stuff is coming…

just keep pushing those feature requests and i’m sure ansca will listen!

[import]uid: 6645 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 14420[/import]

#10

Hi ,

I can definately help you in getting UI for I Pad ,I phone , Android done . Jimmy

jimmy@vinfotech.com [import]uid: 13093 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 14852[/import]

#11

The two thing stopping me purchasing immediately,(though perhaps not, because I am a bit of a geek) are:

  1. The lack of ui elements like pickers (Calendar, time), option lists, checkboxes, radio buttons etc. I am not a games programmer but have lots of ideas for iOS apps that do not require a lot of the physics elements.
    2.Having to install on the phone to test rather than see some elements in the simulator is a real pain.

I have been using LiveCode for my development and see Corona as a viable alternative as there seems to be more resources and larger contributing community. LiveCode uses the xCode simulator so you see almost everything without having to install on the device. [import]uid: 13814 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 16157[/import]

#12

@StewartLynch, this is the beauty of the new Corona license… You don’t need to buy it until you build for device… [import]uid: 11904 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 16224[/import]

#13

@ksan, my understanding (perhaps mistakenly so) was that you could build on your own device but not upload to the app store without a license. There are so many features that will not run in the simulator that need to be tested on the device. Am I mistaken? [import]uid: 13814 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 16246[/import]

#14

I think you’re right. That makes it even better right? Price of admission is 0$… Give it a try. I think you’ll like it. [import]uid: 11904 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 16264[/import]

#15

@ksan, I agree, a great deal if it would work. I am getting errors when trying to load to my iPhone indicating that my certificate is not valid. I build apps using LiveCode using the same cert and am not having any problems. [import]uid: 13814 topic_id: 4455 reply_id: 16285[/import]