Re: Articles on Learning with iLuaBox

[Tom Skwara]

Very nice articles Ron!

Perhaps once our forums go live we could share your example code with others?

Tom Skwara

MobileApp Systems

On Feb 21, 2011, at 2:07 PM, Ron Jeffries wrote:

I've posted a couple of articles showing how this Agile / Test-Driven
Development guy builds a little code in iLuaBox to learn the language
and system.

http://xprogramming.com/articles/bowling-of-course-trying-ilua-for-ipad/
http://xprogramming.com/articles/lua-bowling-now-a-frame/

I'm noticing that the awkwardness of iPad typing, and the lack of
things like replace in the editor, are causing me to take more risks
with the code than I would if editing were easier. No real suggestions
on that yet, just observing.

Thanks, it's fun!

[Ron Jeffries]

[Ron Jeffries]

Hello, Tom. On Monday, February 21, 2011, at 2:29:48 PM, you
wrote:

> Very nice articles Ron!

> Perhaps once our forums go live we could share your example code with others?

Certainly ... and I hope some experts will guide me as well. :)

Ron Jeffries
www.XProgramming.com
Sometimes you just have to stop holding on with both hands, both
feet, and your tail, to get someplace better. Of course you might
plummet to the earth and die, but probably not:
You were made for this.

[Ralph Dratman]

The iPad text editor Textastic offers search and replace, along with
syntax coloring and some other features for programmers.

I agree that a number of things are still quite awkward on the iPad.
Although I've gotten used to the glass keyboard, it's unfortunate that
Apple has neither provided arrow keys nor any practical way to
customize the keyboard. But for me the real throughput busting
"feature" is the finger gymnastics necessary to select, cut and paste
text. Aside from the impractical level of manual dexterity required
for those operations, Apple's cursor manipulation methods inherently
slow down the editing process, because there are time delays built
into those operations, which can't be removed. Just to place a text
cursor in a different location takes a minimum of about 1 second.
That's a thousand milliseconds, folks, and it feels like even more
when you're trying to get something accomplised quickly.

On the plus side, you can pair an Apple Wireless Keyboard with the
iPad, which greatly speeds up text entry and even provides the missing
arrow keys.

Ralph

[Tom Skwara]

Many apps like Textastic and GoodReader implement an iOS feature called inter-app document sharing.  Say for example, when editing a file called 'hello.lua' in Textastic, you can select the action toolbar button and press the 'Open In...' button.  A list of applications registered to the file extension, '.lua' in this case, will be shown.  Selecting any of the applications will open the file in that application.

iLuaBox 1.2.1 (not yet released) has this feature built-in.

Tom Skwara

MobileApp Systems

On Feb 22, 2011, at 6:00 PM, Ron Jeffries wrote:

Thanks for idea on wireless kbd. When I'm not trying to work
horizontally (knee replacement) it is MUCH better. With TextTastic, do
you copy and paste back and forth into iLua, or what? I don't know how
it works.

thanks,

Ron

[Ron Jeffries]

Good news on open in. Will there be a way back to textastic from iLua
as well? I got textastic and it's very promising, as is using my real
kbd when I can.

Source control still an issue but getting better!

Thanks,

R

[Ron Jeffries]

[Tom Skwara]

Document interaction is two-way!

'Open In...' from iLuaBox presents a list of compatible apps (Textastic, GoodReader, etc.).

'Open In...' from the compatible app presents a list of compatible apps, of which iLuaBox is one of the choices.

Tom Skwara

MobileApp Systems