where are the docs for programmers?

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

Hi all, very basic question:

The site is very nice, and I love the idea of cross-platform development in Lua, but … the documentation seems aimed at non- to novice programmers. What am I missing? Is there a technical overview of the system (how it’s implemented)? Particularly, I have a few concerns:

  • how easy is it to integrate code written in [obj-]c[++]/asm ? samples?
  • can we still use the platform performance monitoring tools?
  • does the display library play nice with OGL code written in external modules written in c?

I would be thrilled to write the boring bits in lua/corona and the performance critical parts at a lower level…

Thanks!

Tyler [import]uid: 30178 topic_id: 5626 reply_id: 305626[/import]

#2

how easy is it to integrate code written in [obj-]c[++]/asm ? samples?
It doesn’t integrate with anything. It’s Lua only.

can we still use the platform performance monitoring tools?
You can use any of the tools when you’re running on device as it’s native then.

does the display library play nice with OGL code written in external modules written in c?[/lua]
See answer 1.

This is the most detailed view of the system that you will see: http://developer.anscamobile.com/resources/apis/ [import]uid: 11393 topic_id: 5626 reply_id: 19221[/import]

#3

Thanks for the quick response!

Really? No support for writing parts in C? Surely easy integration is one of Lua’s most attractive qualities!

That’s quite unfortunate, as it seems not too hard to provide, and rules out high-performance apps. (Yes, I realize that Lua has a reputation for good performance for a scripting language.) [import]uid: 30178 topic_id: 5626 reply_id: 19222[/import]

#4

You are correct that Lua can be integrated with C/C++/Obj-C code, and that is indeed what Ansca has done to develop Corona. They have integrated it with their own code; Corona isn’t simply a programming language, it is an entire app development framework, so the stumbling block here isn’t so much integrating with Lua as it is integrating with Corona. As an example, Corona layers all kinds of graphics functionality on top of Lua, so it is complicated to ensure that your custom graphics routines play nice with their graphics routines.

Because of this, unfortunately what you may know or assume about the difficulty of integrating external code with Lua is irrelevant to how difficult that code is to integrate with Corona. [import]uid: 12108 topic_id: 5626 reply_id: 19232[/import]

#5

Um, ok.

Maybe a few examples would make my questions clearer:

  1. is it possible (== easy) to mix in “native” code ? for example, if I need to process a large image on the cpu, I would want to write that routine in c/asm for performance reasons.

  2. performance monitoring tools on iOS at least work in part by instrumenting c functions. With Corona most (all) code is in Lua… to me that implies that some work needs to be done by Ansca to keep the Apple tools useful. so… does anyone use platform performance tools with Corona?

  3. I think this one is pretty clear as-is. Is there support for custom draw code?

Again, Corona looks nice. I want to like it. I want to use it. But right now I’m a little confused about the intended audience… I thought that my questions were just me not finding the right docs, and am a little shocked that the answers may all be “no.”

[import]uid: 30178 topic_id: 5626 reply_id: 19445[/import]

#6

Hi rosetter. I think Corona is not for you as you intent to use your ObjC skills and routines with it. You simply can’t do that in/with Corona. there is no support for external C libs and native ObjC code at all.

Corona is for people who don’t want to use ObjC, XCode and are happy with the function set Corona provides out of the box. It is just Corona and some Lua files, that’s all.

Cheers
Michael Hartlef

http://www.whiteskygames.com
http://www.twitter.com/mhartlef [import]uid: 5712 topic_id: 5626 reply_id: 19447[/import]