In Memoriam: LuaGlider

[myob]

I’ve had a bug ticket open at M.Y. Developers for over 3 months, with no action.  I still have the same problems many of us have been having: constant freezing, and that weird annoying nag about “new updates available!” but unable to install them.  

 

In an attempt to limp along with what used to be a great IDE, I’ve tried redirecting the JRE source in luaglider2.conf as other users have suggested, and I’ve even tried installing netBeans and moving relevant files to the glider directory.  I’ve increased the editor RAM and updated the autosave frequency to no avail: turns out if you autosave too frequently, when you restart after a freeze LuaGlider doesn’t retrieve the latest version anymore.

 

It saddens me that I’m leaving LuaGlider for something else (probably Outlaw, FWIW), especially a product I purchased and embraced as a critical tool in my workflow.  Like I said, LuaGlider used to be great, and I used to heartily recommend it.  But not now.  Customer support is abysmal and the lack of effective patches/updates tells me this product is dead.  For new programmers casting about for a new IDE, don’t embrace LuaGlider.  Yes it’s got pretty interface, and yes it’s awesome when it works, but there’s the rub: it doesn’t work anymore.

 

TL;DR: newbies, don’t even start with Lua Glider.  Oldtimers, bite the bullet and abandon Lua Glider for something more stable. 

 

 

update: Outlaw is no longer under development effective April 2015, so can’t really recommend pursuing it either.  

[schizoid2k]

Been using Glider for years (since it was call Cider) and love it, but I do have to agree.  Some of my concerns:

• It is very hard to get support
• I also have the “1 update available” message that I cannot get rid of
• Installing/Updating causes more problems, so I’ve left my version at what it was  2+ years ago
• Options: Setting some options causes freezes, other options are either not enabled or confusing to me.  A detailed manual would of been great.

I love the editor and debugger despite the issues.  Does Outlaw have a debugger?  I would try it.

I know there are other products, and Corona has Sublime Editor, but I do think they do need to ship a working IDE (editor, debugger) that I do not have to pay extra for.

–john

[JonPM]

https://studio.zerobrane.com/

[schizoid2k]

Thnaks Jon… will check it out.

[redninjacat]

I second @JonPM. ZeroBrane Studio is great! I use it nearly everyday and have no complaints. https://studio.zerobrane.com/

[myob]

So I’m trying ZeroBrane, and I’ve run into some problems:

-it seems “goto” is a reserved keyword when using one of the tomorrow.lua color schemes.  Not a deal breaker because honestly, “goto” is a sucky variable name (but one that actually makes sense where I use it).

-can’t get past the initial splash screen when debugging/running/running in scratchpad.  Even breakpoints at the first variable assignment or function call in main.lua don’t get picked up.  This is a deal breaker…I can get used to a new IDE (if there isn’t a single constant in programming, it’s that there is always something new to learn), but not being able to actually run my code within the IDE is.  Any recommendations?  BTW, it’s not buggy code; I can run it in Lua Glider…

-update on the “can’t get past the splash screen.”  Confirmed it runs in LuaGlider, but it hangs at the same place for Outlaw and running it directly in the Corona Simulator.  So its likely the problem isn’t with ZeroBrane, but I’m at a loss as to how to fix it.  Suggestions are appreciated

–Lisa

-more weirdness:  have dual monitor setup, LuaGlider in one and ZeroBrane in other.  Same code open in each IDE.  Put breakpoints in ZeroBrane code, but start debug process in LuaGlider.  The breakpoints are caught by ZeroBrane!!  Close LuaGlider, hit F5 in ZeroBrane, and it hangs.  Using build 2016.2830 (stable).

[paulclinger]

> -it seems “goto” is a reserved keyword when using one of the tomorrow.lua color schemes.  Not a deal breaker because honestly, “goto” is a sucky variable name (but one that actually makes sense where I use it).

@myob, that’s correct. It’s because the IDE is using the same color scheme and the parser for the code that can be run by Lua 5.1-5.3 versions. You can remove the color coding from “goto” by adding the following two lines to the IDE config (Edit | Preferences | Settings: User):

local luaspec = ide.specs.lua
luaspec.keywords[1] = luaspec.keywords[1]:gsub(’ goto’, ‘’)
 

> -can’t get past the initial splash screen when debugging/running/running in scratchpad.  Even breakpoints at the first variable assignment or function call in main.lua don’t get picked up.

To figure out what’s happening, you may want to start with a simple Corona project that is included with the IDE (myprograms/corona-samples/live-coding-sample; you don’t need to run it as live-coding as you can simply start debugging on it). I’d also check the debugging instructions (http://notebook.kulchenko.com/zerobrane/debugging-and-live-coding-with-corona-sdk-applications-and-zerobrane-studio) to see if there is any information that may be helpful.

Usually having require(“mobdebug”).start() in your main.lua script is enough to do debugging (using Run or Debug doesn’t make much difference in this case; it used to be that Corona Simulator was limiting loadstring and some functions, so an additional parameter was used in debugging, but I think they have lifted this limitation). One of the differences between ZBS and LuaGlider is that ZBS doesn’t make any modifications to your code (which has good and bad sides), so you need to add the “start()” call yourself.

I’ll be following the discussion, but I’m traveling over the weekend, so may only be able to respond next Tuesday.

Paul.

[myob]

@Paul, Thanks for your response.  I have attempted to run the sample code included with the ZeroBrane install to no avail: I get an error message "can’t find ‘main.lua’ file in the current project folder.’  The file is open in ZeroBrane at the time of attempt, as is demo.lua.

 I do have the mobdebug statement in main.lua, and it’s still unable to move beyond the initial splash screen.  Further digging on this site and others have shown that this could have something to do with “localhost:8172 connection refused,” but Corona Debugger, Corona Simulator, ZBS and LuaGlider are all already permitted to communicate through Windows Firewall.

Update: With ZBS open but not running, I went into Windows Firewall settings again and toggled the relevant programs’ access on/off then resaved.  Trying to run the sample code in ZBS caused it to crash (as might be expected).  However, upon reopening ZBS it now runs/debugs!  I haven’t tested live debugging nor checked to see if the demo works now (no sense looking a gift horse in the mouth), but rejoice in having this much functionality  

Might this be a Windows 10 “feature?”  I’ve run into similar problems since upgrading to Windows 10, where driver updates/ OS flags can be set by the user but aren’t recorded until redone.

Thanks again; I hope ZBS becomes a favorite tool in the near future, for both me and others.  Enjoy your weekend

[paulclinger]

> I get an error message "can’t find ‘main.lua’ file in the current project folder.’

@myob, sounds like you resolved your issues; thank you for the update! With regard to this error, just make sure that the project directory is set to the folder with main.lua. You can either use “Project | Project Directory | Set From Current File” (assuming the current file is main.lua) or “Project | Project Directory | Choose…” and select the desired directory. There are also buttons for both of these functions on the toolbar (right above the Project panel). Paul.

[schizoid2k]

Downloaded ZeroBrane and so far I am loving it… definitely going to buy.  Last night I had about 4 Glider freezes within 10 minutes, so that’s it for me.

One thing… is there any way to do syntax highlighting on build.settings?

thanks!

[paulclinger]

> One thing… is there any way to do syntax highlighting on build.settings?

@schizoid2k, you can add something like this to the IDE config (Edit | Preferences | Settings: User):

local luaspec = ide.specs.lua
luaspec.exts[#luaspec.exts+1] = “settings”
 

Paul

[schizoid2k]

It works! Awesome, thanks. It so much easier to work with that file now.

[schizoid2k]

Just purchased, by the way. 

Great IDE for my PC and Mac!

[paulclinger]

Thanks @schizoid2k! Glad you are enjoying it…

[schizoid2k]

Been using Glider for years (since it was call Cider) and love it, but I do have to agree.  Some of my concerns:

• It is very hard to get support
• I also have the “1 update available” message that I cannot get rid of
• Installing/Updating causes more problems, so I’ve left my version at what it was  2+ years ago
• Options: Setting some options causes freezes, other options are either not enabled or confusing to me.  A detailed manual would of been great.

I love the editor and debugger despite the issues.  Does Outlaw have a debugger?  I would try it.

I know there are other products, and Corona has Sublime Editor, but I do think they do need to ship a working IDE (editor, debugger) that I do not have to pay extra for.

–john

[JonPM]

https://studio.zerobrane.com/

[schizoid2k]

Thnaks Jon… will check it out.

[redninjacat]

I second @JonPM. ZeroBrane Studio is great! I use it nearly everyday and have no complaints. https://studio.zerobrane.com/

[myob]

So I’m trying ZeroBrane, and I’ve run into some problems:

-it seems “goto” is a reserved keyword when using one of the tomorrow.lua color schemes.  Not a deal breaker because honestly, “goto” is a sucky variable name (but one that actually makes sense where I use it).

-can’t get past the initial splash screen when debugging/running/running in scratchpad.  Even breakpoints at the first variable assignment or function call in main.lua don’t get picked up.  This is a deal breaker…I can get used to a new IDE (if there isn’t a single constant in programming, it’s that there is always something new to learn), but not being able to actually run my code within the IDE is.  Any recommendations?  BTW, it’s not buggy code; I can run it in Lua Glider…

-update on the “can’t get past the splash screen.”  Confirmed it runs in LuaGlider, but it hangs at the same place for Outlaw and running it directly in the Corona Simulator.  So its likely the problem isn’t with ZeroBrane, but I’m at a loss as to how to fix it.  Suggestions are appreciated

–Lisa

-more weirdness:  have dual monitor setup, LuaGlider in one and ZeroBrane in other.  Same code open in each IDE.  Put breakpoints in ZeroBrane code, but start debug process in LuaGlider.  The breakpoints are caught by ZeroBrane!!  Close LuaGlider, hit F5 in ZeroBrane, and it hangs.  Using build 2016.2830 (stable).

[paulclinger]

> -it seems “goto” is a reserved keyword when using one of the tomorrow.lua color schemes.  Not a deal breaker because honestly, “goto” is a sucky variable name (but one that actually makes sense where I use it).

@myob, that’s correct. It’s because the IDE is using the same color scheme and the parser for the code that can be run by Lua 5.1-5.3 versions. You can remove the color coding from “goto” by adding the following two lines to the IDE config (Edit | Preferences | Settings: User):

local luaspec = ide.specs.lua
luaspec.keywords[1] = luaspec.keywords[1]:gsub(’ goto’, ‘’)
 

> -can’t get past the initial splash screen when debugging/running/running in scratchpad.  Even breakpoints at the first variable assignment or function call in main.lua don’t get picked up.

To figure out what’s happening, you may want to start with a simple Corona project that is included with the IDE (myprograms/corona-samples/live-coding-sample; you don’t need to run it as live-coding as you can simply start debugging on it). I’d also check the debugging instructions (http://notebook.kulchenko.com/zerobrane/debugging-and-live-coding-with-corona-sdk-applications-and-zerobrane-studio) to see if there is any information that may be helpful.

Usually having require(“mobdebug”).start() in your main.lua script is enough to do debugging (using Run or Debug doesn’t make much difference in this case; it used to be that Corona Simulator was limiting loadstring and some functions, so an additional parameter was used in debugging, but I think they have lifted this limitation). One of the differences between ZBS and LuaGlider is that ZBS doesn’t make any modifications to your code (which has good and bad sides), so you need to add the “start()” call yourself.

I’ll be following the discussion, but I’m traveling over the weekend, so may only be able to respond next Tuesday.

Paul.