The Beginnings of Outlaw

Outlaw Game Tools
#1

I don’t know if there will be a specific place in the forums for talk of Outlaw, but I wanted to get a dialog started sooner rather than later, so…

What is Outlaw?

It’s the next generation of Corona Project Manager. Named Outlaw partly because it also allows Moai SDK development (heh-heh) as well as Corona SDK, but MAINLY because it’s a big departure from the “normal” way of creating games and apps.

CPM, Lua Glider, Corona Complete, Sublime Text 2, Eclipse, etc., etc., etc., are all very similar. They’re also nerd-based programs. Some are friendlier than others, but all hearken back to the way geeks have alway written programs.

I don’t particularly like that. (If you do, no problem. You have many choices.)

The Storyboard Example

You know about Storyboard, right? That’s Corona SDK’s method of providing scene management. There’s nothing “wrong” with it, but right-click the following link and open it in a new tab or window…

http://docs.coronalabs.com/api/library/storyboard/index.html

…now scroll down until you see the template for a storyboard file.

You know how much of that code I should have to see in order to use Storyboard? None of it. That’s code that (in general) is NEVER changed, so why should it even be visible to me?

In Outlaw it won’t be. You can still do everything with Storyboard but you don’t have non-essential code cluttering up your workspace. (Yes, if you’re the 1% who needs to change that code, you can dive under the hood and do that, too.)

People aren’t taking advantage of Storyboard right now because it’s kind of convoluted. In Outlaw Storyboard will be on by default but you won’t care – because it will be just as easy as every other part of the Corona SDK framework.

When will Outlaw be available?

Since I’m using CPM as a base I don’t have to do everything from scratch, but this is still a major project. That said, I hope to have things up and running by Christmas.

I don’t have any fantasies that Outlaw will be loved by everyone – there are a lot of people who think files full of source code is the “only” way to program and will NEVER use something like Outlaw. That’s cool. They have permission to be “old school” for as long as they like. :wink:

I’m doing a lot of “internal” coding on Outlaw at this point so there’s not a lot of eye-candy to see, but when I can I’ll post screenshots so you can start seeing what I’m talking about.

Jay


[import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 332340[/import]

#2

Sounds cool. Hope to see more soon. :slight_smile: [import]uid: 70056 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 129613[/import]

#3

Sounds cool. Hope to see more soon. :slight_smile: [import]uid: 70056 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 129613[/import]

#4

Interesting stuff- and I’m a *big* fan of names with meaning. Look forward to seeing it in action :slight_smile: [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 129741[/import]

#5

Interesting stuff- and I’m a *big* fan of names with meaning. Look forward to seeing it in action :slight_smile: [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 129741[/import]

#6

So both CPM and Outlaw now exist? Which is currently supported (i.e. updated)? [import]uid: 132483 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 136562[/import]

#7

Outlaw is the only one that will be updated from this point on.

People who bought Corona Project Manager will get the full version of Outlaw for free. But I need to get a method in place to generate new registration keys for the new version before everyone can just switch over.

I’m hoping I will have that in place within the next few days.

Jay [import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 136569[/import]

#8

Free upgrade? Sounds great!
…already have Outlaw installed :slight_smile: [import]uid: 70847 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 136570[/import]

#9

So both CPM and Outlaw now exist? Which is currently supported (i.e. updated)? [import]uid: 132483 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 136562[/import]

#10

Outlaw is the only one that will be updated from this point on.

People who bought Corona Project Manager will get the full version of Outlaw for free. But I need to get a method in place to generate new registration keys for the new version before everyone can just switch over.

I’m hoping I will have that in place within the next few days.

Jay [import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 136569[/import]

#11

Free upgrade? Sounds great!
…already have Outlaw installed :slight_smile: [import]uid: 70847 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 136570[/import]

#12

Interesting screenshot :slight_smile:

Are these options available in the current version of Outlaw? [import]uid: 101952 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 139074[/import]

#13

No, right now Outlaw is the next version of CPM. Technically, yes, that code is in the program, but you can’t get to it unless you’re me. :slight_smile: And honestly, you wouldn’t want to get to it yet – it’s still very much a work in progress.

I worked on it some last night and then put it away for a couple weeks while I get an overdue game out the door.

But it is coming at some point in the future. And I think it’s going to be really cool. :slight_smile:

Jay [import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 139079[/import]

#14

Cool

While we are waiting for that feature…is there an info or documentation for the current version?
I’ve noticed Tags (which are bookmarks - right/no?) plus red markers. Is there more? And how tags works?
I have feeling that they are more than just bookmarks (in which case you’ll, probably, call them bookmarks :slight_smile:

Regards [import]uid: 101952 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 139138[/import]

#15

The stuff here all pertains to Outlaw - just ignore the CPM name:

http://coronaprojectmanager.com/learningcenter/

At some point in the near-mid future I will start recreating the tutorial videos with Outlaw, but since there are some big changes coming I’m stalling for as long as possible.

The blue tags in the gutter are the bookmarks – the red tags should have been removed from the shipping version. They are part of a module that may or may not be released in the future. So you won’t see them in v3.0.8. :slight_smile:

Jay
[import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 139302[/import]

#16

New docs will be really useful. There is something called “placeholder” which is not covered in your tutorials. Plus (if my memory serves me well) there was some kind of comment which can be used as bookmark…which can be useful because current bookmarks are lost if the file is closed.
Highlighting of all occurrences of the current selection would be uber cool too…

And yes, there is one issue: I noticed that AutoAddAssets doesn’t work on my Win7
(is this forum correct place for bug reports?)

Edit:
I’ve found it in the forum!
–#label is for labelled bookmarks.
Placeholders are probably used for autocomplete…

Btw. is it possible to indend multiple lines at once? [import]uid: 101952 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 139318[/import]

#17

Select the lines, hit Command+] to indent, Command+[to outdent. (Control+] and [ on Windows)

You can also use --#snippet SnippetName in your code and it will import the snippet by that name when you launch. Makes it nice to import stuff you need but don’t really need to view the code while you’re working.

Jay [import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 139534[/import]

#18

There’s also another tag that works with the files you throw in Prefs > Library

–#library libName

That will copy the named library from wherever it lives on your hard drive and put it with your launched program (it doesn’t move it into the project itself). It will also put require(“libName”) in your code at the spot of the tag.

You can also throw in a variable name if you want:

–#library libName varName

…which turns into…

varName = require(“libName”)

Why use the tag instead of just a normal require? It’s simply a way of leaving generic library files in one spot on your hard drive but still be able to easily include them in your projects on the fly.

Oh, that tag is actually broken in the current version but is fixed in 3.0.8 which should be available in a few days. :slight_smile:

Jay

EDIT: Forgot about this shortcut:

–#library libName+

…will turn into…

libName = require(“libName”)
[import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 139539[/import]

#19

Great!

Thank you for this detailed info about tags. They can save me a lot of time…
–#snippet is my favorite…

Unfortunately control+[ doesn’t work on my laptop. (I’ve tried many KB layouts w/o success)
For now I’ll have to indent each line manually.

Thanks
[import]uid: 101952 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 139552[/import]

#20

Apparently I “connected” the wrong key in Windows – I just tested and Control+] doesn’t work, but the Windows Key+] will indent a block of code. I don’t know if every Windows keyboard has a “Windows key” but if yours does, give it a shot.

3.0.8 already went out the door but I’ll try to hook up the correct key for the next version. :slight_smile:

Jay
[import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 32340 reply_id: 139554[/import]