Hello everyone! Some of you already know me. I run Photics.com - an Internet Publishing company. I’ve been seriously considering the creation of a textbook that teaches Corona.
Is this community interested in such a book?
This is not a trivial endeavor. It’s difficult to make a great book. However, if the feedback is good, then that’s what I plan to do. [import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 304938[/import]
I’m sure many people would read a textbook about Corona, but if you are planning to write one then you are really jumping the gun. I mean, you seem to have just started using Corona. Considering I teach classes in game development I might write an instructional book if I get to be an expert user with a few projects under my belt, but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 16004[/import]
Hey Photics, your Unofficial GS textbook was awesome, so if the Corona one would be just as awesome or even awesomer, I’d say go for it! But as jhocking said, make sure you know your stuff, and maybe become more prominent in the community, like GameSalad. Just saying, I’d probably buy it regardless. [import]uid: 8782 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 16034[/import]
id be all in if you create a textbook [import]uid: 11860 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 16083[/import]
>> I’m sure many people
>> would read a textbook
>> about Corona, but if
>> you are planning to
>> write one then you are
>> really jumping the gun.
>> – jhocking
I don’t think so. My previous textbook was very helpful. I’m fairly confident that I could create a similar book for this community.
>> make sure you know
>> your stuff
>> – NayGames
Yes, of course! If I publish such a book, I’d want to create something that was even better than my previous attempt.
However, I’m not sure if there’s enough interest in such a book - not from me anyway. I only see two posts that like the idea. [import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 16820[/import]
I like the idea but also pay attention to the fluid nature of Corona. It is still in its early stages so you may need to update your textbook as Corona evolves. I for one would be very interested in your textbook. Thanks for considering this. [import]uid: 11904 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 16966[/import]
Here’s the story…
I’m concerned about the interest in such a book. Some people have been asking me to make one, but I’m not sure if it will be as popular as my last project.
Also, this community is different. Maybe the project should be opensource / creative commons / collaboration? Maybe the entire community could make their own book / wiki?
Although, there has been a lot of exciting things going on with Corona. SpriteDeck is a big development and Windows support is HUGE! Considering that my most successful app is actually a book, perhaps that’s what I should keep doing.
Are people still interested in a book? [import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 18644[/import]
+1 for Corona wiki OR some type of collaborative project
Please don’t take this wrong, but I think there are a lot of untapped resources in this community. Giving them yet another outlet couldn’t hurt. That and, the competent scripter/complete newb ratio is a little different than on the GS board. [import]uid: 10248 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 18664[/import]
I would really appreciate a corona textbook, but as ksan already mentioned Corona SDK is rapidly evolving which could become a huge problem for the book later on. Maybe an e-book would be better : ) .
And about the open source or not open source I think it’s up to you, as long as the book is good people would be interested in it, especially newbs like me ; ). [import]uid: 23613 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 18679[/import]
>> +1 for Corona wiki OR some
>> type of collaborative project
>>
>> Please don’t take this wrong,
>> but I think there are a lot of
>> untapped resources in this
>> community. Giving them yet
>> another outlet couldn’t hurt.
>> That and, the competent
>> scripter/complete newb ratio
>> is a little different than on
>> the GS board.
>>
>> - BarkBarkCo
I actually think the best solution is a collaborative project. Heh, that’s why I suggested it. So, I’m not offended.
However, I do think there are some people that look at Corona and get overwhelmed. A book, similar to my other book, could be helpful — a start to finish guide for Corona.
————————————
————————————
>> Maybe an e-book would be better : )
>> - alex.appdev
If I do make a Corona book, I’m thinking it would be an app… possibly made with Corona. That would make it easy to update.
But so far, I’m thinking this project might be a lot of work for very little reward. Also, I think the best way to handle this matter is with a wiki - run by the community. That seems like the best solution. It would strengthen the community. I like that, so I don’t feel like I should stand in the way. [import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 18869[/import]
+1 for Corona book … for all of the reasons stated by Photics. [import]uid: 1855 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 18978[/import]
I think a book that leads you through creating a game would be worth doing. Start with the basics and then go through to advanced. I bought Mike Daleys book (71squared.com) on iOS programming and what he did was pretty good. First off he did some tutorial videos, then some project templates, then released a book where he builds a game and that game is actually on the app store so you see the whole thing. Now its quite low-level (OpenGL programming) but I wanted to just get a feel for it.
Then I went and bought Steffan Itterheims book on Learning Cocos2D, again great as it starts with the simple stuff and then you end up writing a parallax scrolling shooter. [import]uid: 7334 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 20586[/import]
I would love to buy your book [import]uid: 33138 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 22845[/import]
hi Photics
im in either way you decide to go [import]uid: 7911 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 24150[/import]
I think I’m going to try!
I’m planning to start work on the project tomorrow.
There are about eight people here that think the Textbook is a good idea. That’s about two less when I started my previous book project. So if that’s an omen that this project will be 80% as successful, that’s still a good project. The format will be basically the same… creating a Corona game from start to finish, with lots of examples and useful instructions.
I like what I’ve been seeing from Corona. Windows support is huge. Android support is also huge! In-app purchases suggests that Corona is working towards supporting Apple’s standards. I’ve been waiting for Game Center, but OpenFeint is a possible alternative… and I’ll be checking out how Corona works with PHP.
The only downside to Corona that I see is with web integration. I don’t think there’s a plug-in (or html 5 support) to play Corona games in a browser.
The really cool thing is that I could use Corona to make the book/app! [import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 24290[/import]
I think an open source project online would be best, where everyone could contribute. Think of it like the “Gems” series books. Despite that I know how to make a platformer or such in Corona, it’s always nice to know how the pros do it and if there are particular things you need to do in Lua for better memory management or object management. [import]uid: 10622 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 24296[/import]
I suggested an open source project, but it looks like the idea didn’t catch on. [import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 24355[/import]
Progress Report: February 22, 2011
Wow… I’m incredibly impressed with Corona. Any dread that I felt while starting this project is now gone! I’m excited with the possibilities. I didn’t realize how powerful this software was, not until I took a close look at the APIs. There are so many things that I can create now.
This is going to be a challenging — but fun — project!
Supplemental…
Ah, some of that dread is coming back. I hate coding. I understand what’s going on, but it feels so slow. Here are some of the things that I noticed…
No quick way to start a blank project from the Corona Simulator. The instructions/documentation suggest to get started with the Hello World project, but it’s already completed. (I realize creating a new document is nothing more than a folder and a main.lua file. Heh, GameSalad made me really lazy. HA HA.)
Launching the corona terminal relaunches the Corona Simulator. I’m thinking this would be more user friendly if the terminal could be launched from the simulator.
There are a lot of third-party add-ons for Corona. I looked at the Corona® Project Manager and I started rethinking the way I was approaching the book. The problem is that I don’t want to cover add-ons that people have to buy. If someone doesn’t buy the add-on, they could get lost. I might make third-party add-ons a separate chapter to protect the flow of the book. Something like Corona Project Manager and Sprite Deck should be part of Corona.
Basically, there’s not a lot of hand-holding with Corona. That makes the textbook more useful. Heh, but it makes it a lot harder to write.
[import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 24415[/import]
Supplemental (Part II)
It’s been a busy day for Corona research. I’m fairly impressed with the progress that I’m making. I understand the software a lot more than I thought. I’m seeing some common elements from Xcode, GameSalad, iOS and Android that’s making it easy to understand.
Although, I have seen some issues…
The applications are larger than I expected. The Hello World is like 7 MB.
The native.showWebPopup API is not working like I expected.
It doesn’t work in the Corona Simulator
I tried to make it full-screen and it crashed in the iPhone Simulator
I recreated my GameSalad textbook with Corona and it didn’t quite work right. Simply putting cover.html wasn’t enough to get the local file to display. I thought about working on it some more, but the file size was troubling. It’s over 20 MB - the wireless download limit with AT&T. That means I’ll probably be making the textbook with Xcode.
I was really disappointed with the native.showWebPopup API.
If I put this…
[lua]native.showWebPopup( 10, 10, 300, 300,
“http://photics.com”,
{urlRequest=listener} )[/lua]
It worked on my device and in the iPhone Simulator.
If I put this…
[lua]native.showWebPopup( 0, 0, display.contentWidth, display.contentHeight,
“http://photics.com”,
{urlRequest=listener} )[/lua]
It crashed in the iPhone Simulator. Constantly having to build the app, and then move it to my device, was very tedious - not a fun way to test changes.
I even tried something simple like…
[lua]native.showWebPopup( “http://photics.com” )[/lua]
…which also crashed.
That’s disappointing because many of my apps use the UIWebView. I was excited to see that a complicated Xcode project could be reduced to a single line of code, but it didn’t work out right. Maybe it’s a bug. [import]uid: 13264 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 24498[/import]
Hi Photics,
If you write the book, I’ll buy. I bought the GameSalad book and it was well done.
Regarding build size, I routinely build apps that are well under 1MB. Perhaps you’re using the trial version? I don’t believe the trial version strips out unused libraries, but the release version does. [import]uid: 5742 topic_id: 4938 reply_id: 24565[/import]