Wouldn’t it be lovely if display.newText took the text colour as a parameter…
It’d reduce a lot of lines of code like this:
local myText = display.newText( “Hello World!”, 100, 200, native.systemFont, 16 )
myText:setFillColor( 1, 0, 0 )
Similarly newRect etc.
It’d be lovely wouldn’t it.
Tom
Well, you could easily create a wrapper function that takes the usual arguments, plus optional colour, scale, reference point and anything else you can think of and returns the text object with everything nicely set up.
Agreed. Corona doesn’t need to do this. It is plenty flexible as is.
SSK2 Already Has It
SSK does this: https://roaminggamer.github.io/RGDocs/pages/SSK2/libraries/easy_interfaces/#quicklabel
ssk.easyIFC:quickLabel( group, text, x, y [, font [, size [, color [, anchorX [, anchorY]]]]] )
If you use SSK in your projects, you could just put this at the top of any file where you need it,
local easyIFC = ssk.easyIFC
Then do this anywhere below that:
quickLabel( nil, "Hello World!", 100, 200, native.systemFont, 16, { 1, 0, 0 } )
Or this to align text to upper-left corner
quickLabel( nil, "Hello World!", 100, 200, native.systemFont, 16, { 1, 0, 0 }, 0, 0 )
Object Factories Too
Likewise, SSK has super shorthand builders for circle, rect, imagerect, … way more powerful than what you’re imagining.
https://roaminggamer.github.io/RGDocs/pages/SSK2/libraries/display_standard/
Examples:
https://roaminggamer.github.io/RGDocs/pages/SSK2/libraries/display_samples/
Bouncing Block Physics Example:
newImageRect( group, centerX - 100 , centerY - 50, "images/kenney/physicsAssets/yellow\_round.png", { size = 40 }, { radius = 20, bounce = 1, gravityScale = 0.2 } ) newImageRect( group, centerX - 100, centerY + 100, "images/kenney/physicsAssets/stone/square2.png", { size = 40 }, { bodyType = "static" } )
Tip: If you want a feature, ask about it directly instead of passively implying Corona should up its game or something.
Corona should do a better job of pushing libraries like SSK that are clearly of use to almost everyone, especially beginners.
When Unity come across a library that is in widespread use and clearly enhance the product, they bring it in-house. TextMeshPro, ProBuilder are two great libraries that started as 3rd party products but are now official Unity packages.
Thanks both!
I’ll look at SSK, roaminggamer - much appreciated.
For my reference, is there an easy way that I can extend display.newText so it can take that extra parameter? Or do I need to create a new function that takes *all* the display.newText params and passes them all through, along with anything new ones I want to add?
You need to write a new function, but it’s very little code … simple example replacement
[lua]
do
local newText = display.newText
display.newText = function( txt, x, y, font, size, r, g, b, a )
local myText = newText( txt, x, y, font, size )
myText:setFillColor( r or 1, g or 1, b or 1, a or 1 )
return myText
end
end
[/lua]
It would be better to use the version that uses the table with the options but you used the one with the explicit parameters so I used the same.
Got it. Thank you Michael
Touché, roaminggamer
SSK looks excellent… I agree with Nick - I’ve been around here for a long time and didn’t know it existed…
Tip: If you wanted to take that one step further, you could extend/override display.newText() by executing this code once:
**UPDATE** I must have misread Michael’s post. :wacko:** He already did what I’m suggesting below with a slightly different signature.**
-- Execute this code once only before doing any work in your game/app local display\_newText = display.newText function display.newText( ..., color ) color = color or {1,1,1} local text = display\_newText( unpack( arg ) ) text:setFillColor( unpack( color ) ) return text end
Now you can use display.newText() like this if you want:
local myText = display.newText( "Hello World!", 100, 200, native.systemFont, 16, {1,0,0} )
SSK uses this and other extension techniques to extend certain key Corona libraries:
PS - I hope I wasn’t rude about the whole ‘passive’ thing. I’ve had my coffee now.
Ah yes, this is what I was meaning really… useful to know - thanks
Hehe, no, it was a fair point! I run a software company so I ought to know!
fwiw, this type of override is “easier” if you abandon the legacy multi-argument format in favor of the current table-options format
just call your override with a few extra table parameters, pass the same table to the original newText (which will just ignore any unrecognized parameters), then parse your new parameters, fe:
display.oldText = display.newText function display.newText(options) local t = display.oldText(options) t:setFillColor(unpack(options.color)) return t endBelatedly - many thanks Dave, that’s really helpful
Well, you could easily create a wrapper function that takes the usual arguments, plus optional colour, scale, reference point and anything else you can think of and returns the text object with everything nicely set up.
Agreed. Corona doesn’t need to do this. It is plenty flexible as is.
SSK2 Already Has It
SSK does this: https://roaminggamer.github.io/RGDocs/pages/SSK2/libraries/easy_interfaces/#quicklabel
ssk.easyIFC:quickLabel( group, text, x, y [, font [, size [, color [, anchorX [, anchorY]]]]] )
If you use SSK in your projects, you could just put this at the top of any file where you need it,
local easyIFC = ssk.easyIFC
Then do this anywhere below that:
quickLabel( nil, "Hello World!", 100, 200, native.systemFont, 16, { 1, 0, 0 } )
Or this to align text to upper-left corner
quickLabel( nil, "Hello World!", 100, 200, native.systemFont, 16, { 1, 0, 0 }, 0, 0 )
Object Factories Too
Likewise, SSK has super shorthand builders for circle, rect, imagerect, … way more powerful than what you’re imagining.
https://roaminggamer.github.io/RGDocs/pages/SSK2/libraries/display_standard/
Examples:
https://roaminggamer.github.io/RGDocs/pages/SSK2/libraries/display_samples/
Bouncing Block Physics Example:
newImageRect( group, centerX - 100 , centerY - 50, "images/kenney/physicsAssets/yellow\_round.png", { size = 40 }, { radius = 20, bounce = 1, gravityScale = 0.2 } ) newImageRect( group, centerX - 100, centerY + 100, "images/kenney/physicsAssets/stone/square2.png", { size = 40 }, { bodyType = "static" } )
Tip: If you want a feature, ask about it directly instead of passively implying Corona should up its game or something.
Corona should do a better job of pushing libraries like SSK that are clearly of use to almost everyone, especially beginners.
When Unity come across a library that is in widespread use and clearly enhance the product, they bring it in-house. TextMeshPro, ProBuilder are two great libraries that started as 3rd party products but are now official Unity packages.
Thanks both!
I’ll look at SSK, roaminggamer - much appreciated.
For my reference, is there an easy way that I can extend display.newText so it can take that extra parameter? Or do I need to create a new function that takes *all* the display.newText params and passes them all through, along with anything new ones I want to add?
You need to write a new function, but it’s very little code … simple example replacement
[lua]
do
local newText = display.newText
display.newText = function( txt, x, y, font, size, r, g, b, a )
local myText = newText( txt, x, y, font, size )
myText:setFillColor( r or 1, g or 1, b or 1, a or 1 )
return myText
end
end
[/lua]
It would be better to use the version that uses the table with the options but you used the one with the explicit parameters so I used the same.
Got it. Thank you Michael
Touché, roaminggamer
SSK looks excellent… I agree with Nick - I’ve been around here for a long time and didn’t know it existed…