Hiding between the cracks, best of WWDC 2015 news bits

Most people that follow WWDC keynotes are not developers, and are looking for new products or OS features. Most news sites do not list key developer things. There where several blips however that where not talk about in depth that where major things great for developers. In case anyone missed it, 3 things jump out as major developer wows.

First the release of Swift version 2.0 with many major improvements. Several are outlined here at apple swift blog

Second Swift is now open source, and will support Apples iOS, Mac and also Linux. With more platform support to come in the future. The source code will include swift compiler and standard library among other things.

Last and almost under the radar. The consolidation of Mac and iOS developer programs into one thing. Saving money for developers each year.

Saving money if you where like me and had to pay for both iOS and Mac developer programs annually for the past 5 years.

I still like to see for them to remove the annual fee altogether in the future. As Apple takes 30% commission from selling developers apps. That high commission should cover the fee for the program alone. As every other app store before Apple, only tock under 9% commission from selling developers apps.

Still it is a move in the right direction.

Toolbar Toggles With Xojo

With Xojo (Real Studio) Making an Toolbar behave like an tabbed view controller does not work by default. Even with using the inspector settings. This is an walk over to how to get this to work. This will work perfectly on all platforms Mac, Windows and Linux. It does not need many steps but does require code.

I have added an screen record video (free, cause this info should really be free! ) That shows how to get this to work.



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Enjoy and Happy coding:)

Xojo (Real Studio) New IDE out, Here is the lowdown.

Xojo formally known as Real Software whom made Real Studio and once Real Basic, has released there new Cross platform IDE tool Xojo 2013 r1. While there are some minor bugs in this first release, it is an great IDE if its compared with other cross platform tools (such as Livecode).

Since 1996 when I first started making software for money, I have used many such cross platform tools. None really compare to the overall quality of Xojo development tools or the final compiled product.

The IDE is basically one window, however as seen in the screenshot you can palette the object and properties panes (which I personally find make an faster workflow, during gui layout). 

What I really like about Xojo is it designed for the professional developer in mind first. Some of the other tools I have used seem to be designed for hobbyist first which make it fall short. 

Xojo has built in tools that help get the job done faster and with great results. I can not even cover all of them here, because there so many things it does that other tools do not. 

If you spend over 80 hours a week making apps like I do, having the right tools matter.

Having an fully customizable code editor is an major plus. Many other tools just do not get it, when it comes to code editing. They think any old plain text editor will do (which I guess it can work, if you spend little time writing any code.)

I prefer having and working with an editor that one can adjust colors of the syntax and background to anything.  After 14 hours an day, 6 days an week if not 7 staring at black text on an white background it can really kill your eyes. Specially if your already wearing glasses.

Also being able have syntax autocomplete is an major plus. Typing thousands of lines of code one char at an time adds up. This takes longer in time, and adds more chances of creating an bug.

When I compare Xojo to Livecode (another tool I used for 8 years) text editor. Hands down Xojo wins by an land slide. While many Livecode users have requested such changes to Livecode editors for years, nothing ever has come. 

Xojo seems understand how to make tools that make people more productive (While they are not prefect. Compared to other cross platform tools, I feel they understand far better than others.) 

This tool allows for many different project formats which supports source control super easy. Most other cross platform tools do not have this at all.

Built in Unit testing. This is awesome! Easy see bottle neck areas, fast and easy to help optimize your code. Actually no other cross platform tool I used has ever had this feature. This is an major plus, allowing you to deliver an top notch product that works fast.

The best thing I like in the Xojo IDE, is the interface layout and design area. The layout area has measurement guides, advance alignment tools, layering and quick access to every item on an window and also helpful scrollbars, when on smaller displays (macbook air anyone?). 

The best part of Xojo is the end product it makes. It is just better than any other cross platform tool on the market today. It supports many of the most modern platform items and native UI. Also if anything missing that I want access to I can write an declare and add just about any native thing I want. 

Also you can tap into the many resources of other developers and use 3rd party plug-ins that have reasonably prices. Specially when compared to the expensive, and limited 3rd party add-ons of most other cross platform tools

I hear many people complain about Xojo, I really do not understand why. Maybe if you have issues with it, go use Livecode or another cross platform tool for an few years. Then maybe you will see what I am talking about. When you actually compare Xojo to other cross platform development tools, really I see nothing better.

The people who make Xojo deliver promises, they make within an reasonable timeframe. I have been lead on for over 6 years about another tool I used, supporting Cocoa for OS X.Adding Browsers for Linux, etc, etc, etc. It still not done, and may never be done. There to busy working on minor things like syntax changes to things that are not broken.

Xojo offer far better resources to make far better cross platform apps than any other tool I used. It is an great cross platform tool, I highly suggest checking it out. You can use the IDE for free , and it reasonable priced to deploy apps.

Here is an link Xojo website

Livecode Cross Platform is now open source

An development tool I used for the past nine years released itself as open source April 9th 2013.
This includes the full source code to the engine for desktop, mobile and server along with the IDE.

Here an quick link to the Git engine source https://github.com/runrev/livecode

The IDE which needs an free account to unlock and use can be found here Runrev

Livecode is an cross-platform tool for Mac OSX , Windows, Linux, Server, Android and iOS.
Its not prefect and can not do everything. However what it can do it does well. For the last 9 years 80% of all the software I have sold was made with Livecode. Even if now I moved on to using Real Studio (Xojo), Xcode and Unity for most of my software and games. (it was not for any other reason than I needed tools that could make professional software that Livecode was no longer suited the best option to build.)

I do recommend checking it out, it will surprise you to find out Livecode can do much more than what you first think it can do.

There also an great amount of 3rd party add-ons and custom controls than any other tool I seen besides Unity. One of the best part of it being open source for me is actually opening up the engine source and tweaking things. However I only started peeking and saying there using that? In I use that already with tool X.

I recall helping out an Livecode user last winter, and when I recommend curl as an option I was told "that dumb I never use it." Well guess what, Livecode was using curl, one look at the source code and licensing shows it.

There are many other interesting discoveries on how they made there tool work. I for years tried to guess what cross compiler they used. When I seen stack-less just in time compiler. I almost fell out of my chair. I had that listed as one of my guesses years ago.

If your new to Livecode, it will depended on coding experience on how you take it. I personally learned programing from BASIC and Livecode is much like hyper-talk. It takes time getting use to if you have years of using other programming languages, because it seems like baby talk. If you can look beyond that you find it works fast and does a lot.

The mobile space is actually very well and 500 times better than Corona sdk. However if you want physics you need to program them your self, which is really not that hard. There is however some major down  sides. The native UI is outdated at best, but you can use custom controls and get them to work pretty fast depending on your skill at design.

For Mac there no cocoa yet, witch means no retina support. This was one of the main reasons I quit using Livecode last year. And moved back to tools like Xcode and real studio.

Personally Livecode still worth an look for Mobile and it also does windows really well. Also Cocoa for mac is now an future project of runrev so its coming. I just do not think it will come till 2014 I could be wrong.

Also the IDE is way dated. And mobile apps windows at 1 to 1 retina sizes do not fit most computer displays. There an few tricks to getting this to work, witch is not all that bad for the trade off in code time saved.

Why not download it and give it an try. Maybe it works for you. Also do not believe everyone on that forum that says you can not do that. I proved many of them wrong for years doing what they said can not be done with Livecode.

Installing Livecode on Linux

I had to set up an new Linux box this week and came accross that time when to Install Livecode, again. Since we been asked this question before. How to install Livecode on Linux? I figure why not do an quick 1 minute video screen how to. Hopefully someone finds this useful. If not , oh well.

Get & Set Linux Theme with Livecode.

With Linux there many different options for window themes, based upon what distro you or your users are running. But using Livecode this is easy info to get and can be used to alter the window theme layout like the following Picture below alters the toolbar and window menu in unity theme of an Livecode built app.

To query this data is simple for Livecode use the Environment Variable $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP.

Use like such 

function getLixTheme

return $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

end getLixTheme

For the above if its unity I alter the window layout as show, else I alter nothing, and remove the unity toolbar and White in window menu.