help with ivy on ios/mobile

[Rob Pike]

Ivy (robpike.io/ivy) is the "bignum calculator" that turned into an example for running Go programs on mobile platforms. On both Android and iOS, it is available for download and runs as a Go program wrapped, somewhat clumsily, by a native (Java or Objective-C) program. See golang.org/x/mobile/example/ivy.

The mobile version has had only one minor update since maybe 2015, although the underlying Go program has become much more robust and rich. I am in the process of trying to bring the mobile versions up to scratch.

The biggest technical stumbling block I have is how the demo runs on mobile (see https://github.com/golang/go/issues/48694). As a Go program running on a real OS, one can type

) demo

and get a nice interactive demo. On mobile, because the I/O is so constrained, that just doesn't work, and in fact until recent updates the failure mode was a complaint about a missing Go installation. That has now been fixed in the latest ivy build available on GitHub, but the demo experience is still missing on iOS.

On Android, there is a Demo button that drives the demo and works pretty well, I think; at least it does in the still-available mobile version. There is no similar facility available on iOS.

I am not a competent iOS programmer and am looking for a volunteer to help me add a Demo button, like the one on Android, so that the demo experience will be available on iOS. It should be very easy to do for a programmer skilled in Objective-C. All that's needed is the glue to connect a screen button to an existing API in the mobile piece of the existing Go program (robpike.io/ivy/mobile). 

Once this is sorted, I'll make sure Android still works. Meanwhile I've got some formatting stuff to do to make the in-program help better on mobile, and then we can update the mobile apps.

I would be grateful for any assistance.

-rob

[Rob Pike]

Pinging, hoping for some help.

Thanks.

-rob

[Robert Engels]

What is your timeframe? I can probably help with this. 

On Oct 14, 2021, at 6:15 PM, Rob Pike <r...@golang.org> wrote:



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[Rob Pike]

Thanks for offering. I'm hoping to have iOS app ready to ship by early November.

-rob

[Robert Engels]

I can do it. 

On Oct 14, 2021, at 7:01 PM, Rob Pike <r...@golang.org> wrote:



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[Rob Pike]

Thanks. I think what I need is clear enough. Using the latest commit
at robpike.io/ivy, and the latest golang.org/x/mobile, please build a
Demo button next to the Help button on the iOS app, as there is on
Android.

Here is the script I use to build the iOS app (we used to call this a
"program"), thanks to some helpful folks at Apple. I think some of the
steps are needless, but they worked.

git clone https://github.com/robpike/ivy.git
git clone https://github.com/golang/mobile.git
brew install golang # I skipped this, and you can too, but you need
at least 1.17.
go install golang.org/x/mobile/cmd/gomobile@latest
go install golang.org/x/mobile/cmd/gobind@latest
export PATH=~/go/bin/:$PATH
mkdir work; cd work
go mod init work
go get -d golang.org/x/mobile/bind@latest
go get -d robpike.io/ivy/mobile
gomobile bind -target=ios,iossimulator,maccatalyst,macos robpike.io/ivy/mobile
cd ../mobile/example/ivy/ios
ditto ../../../../work/Mobile.xcframework/ Mobile.xcframework/
open ivy.xcodeproj

The new code should all be in the mobile repo. The hook to run the
demo is in robpike.io/mobile/mobile.go and is very easy to use.

-rob

[Robert Engels]

Will do. I am booked through the weekend but will get on it next week. Glad to help.

> On Oct 14, 2021, at 7:15 PM, Rob Pike <r...@golang.org> wrote:
>
> Thanks. I think what I need is clear enough. Using the latest commit

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[Rob Pike]

Thanks so much.

-rob

[robert engels]

Rob,

You email makes reference to golang.org/x/mobile/example/ivy

That does not exist?

On Oct 12, 2021, at 7:15 PM, Rob Pike <r...@golang.org> wrote:

golang.org/x/mobile/example/ivy

[Ian Lance Taylor]

On Sat, Oct 16, 2021 at 4:58 PM robert engels <ren...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> Rob,
>
> You email makes reference to golang.org/x/mobile/example/ivy
>
> That does not exist?

You can see it at
https://go.googlesource.com/mobile/+/refs/heads/master/example/ivy/

Ian

> On Oct 12, 2021, at 7:15 PM, Rob Pike <r...@golang.org> wrote:
>
> golang.org/x/mobile/example/ivy
>
>

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[robert engels]

Also, I don’t see how the demo will work. There is no stdin/stdout interface under iOS. I think you would need to create an html UI with an embedded http server to do this.

Have you ever had this working under iOS?

[Ian Lance Taylor]

On Sat, Oct 16, 2021 at 6:10 PM robert engels <ren...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> Also, I don’t see how the demo will work. There is no stdin/stdout interface under iOS. I think you would need to create an html UI with an embedded http server to do this.
>
> Have you ever had this working under iOS?

Yes. Ivy used to be in the Apple app store. Maybe it still is, I don't know.

Ian

> On Oct 16, 2021, at 6:58 PM, robert engels <ren...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> Rob,
>
> You email makes reference to golang.org/x/mobile/example/ivy
>
> That does not exist?
>
>
> On Oct 12, 2021, at 7:15 PM, Rob Pike <r...@golang.org> wrote:
>
> golang.org/x/mobile/example/ivy
>
>
>
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[robert engels]

Yes, now that I can see the example code, I see how it is being done. I will need to review some more. At first glance I don’t see how the ‘demo’ will work though, becauseI don’t see the ‘example’ providing an io.Reader()/Writer() interface that can be passed to the demo.Run()

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[Rob Pike]

The Android version I'm told (I haven't seen the code) read the file
and passed it line by line through the Next method of the mobile.Demo
type. Now with embedding the asset is already there. It should be
easy. The reason I haven't done that is that I don't know Objective-C
and especially don't know the libraries and execution environment.

But yes, on mobile there is no stdin/stdout, which shocked me when I
realized it, but then I've done zero programming for mobile.

-rob

[robert engels]

I was able to get the example to run. I have XCode 13 and some of the configuration is no longer valid.

I will work on the button next week.

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[Rob Pike]

Great!

-rob

[Robert Engels]

Hi,

I’m pretty close to finished. Both the Android and iOS apps were horribly out of date so couldn’t be built with later toolchains.

It is also a lot more than simply ‘adding a button’ due to the way the ‘demo’ operates.

Should be ready in a day or two and I will send some PRs.

Robert

> On Oct 16, 2021, at 11:59 PM, Rob Pike <r...@golang.org> wrote:
>
> Great!

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[Ian Lance Taylor]

On Wed, Oct 20, 2021 at 6:42 AM Robert Engels <ren...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> I’m pretty close to finished. Both the Android and iOS apps were horribly out of date so couldn’t be built with later toolchains.
>
> It is also a lot more than simply ‘adding a button’ due to the way the ‘demo’ operates.
>
> Should be ready in a day or two and I will send some PRs.

Note that Hana (CC'ed) recently sent some changes for Ivy on Android
(https://golang.org/cl/356729 and friends).

Ian

[robert engels]

Ugh. I basically duplicated all of that work...

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[robert engels]

The changes are available for review at https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/mobile/+/357854

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[robert engels]

Sorry, missed a change, new PR is https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/mobile/+/357874

[robert engels]

Sorry, wrong link, https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/mobile/+/357875

Been a while since I’ve used git… :)

[Rob Pike]

Thanks so much for doing this. Is there another commit waiting to be
pushed? The file demo.ivy is still in the change.

-rob

[robert engels]

That is in change 357934

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[robert engels]

I am not sure why there is a merge conflict - all of the changes are mine. I assume it is because the earlier commit has not been accepted.

[Rob Pike]

I'll let Hana Kim review the first one, but overall it looks good to me.

I've +2ed the second one.

Thanks again. Can't wait to get this out.

-rob