Mobile dev
category: code [glöplog]
I mean pure mobile: coding on a phone or tablet. Anyone doing it? I find it's a pretty good way to kill some time trying a few ideas out on a long flight, or whenever you don't have a laptop handy.
There have been a couple of promising apps for iOS in the last couple of months that I've tried out:
- Codea. Runs on iPad only, targeted really at simple game prototyping but it's pretty good fun. You code in lua, and the editor is good for a tablet. Graphics in the initial version were limited to sprites, a few 2d primitives + alpha blending, I think they've opened it to direct pixel writing now but haven't had much time to experiment lately.
- GLSL studio. This seems to be pretty new, and I just installed it last night. Haven't had time to really push it but it looks promising! You can load in textures (or hook the camera to a texture uniform), use a few basic objects (only interested in one, the full-screen rect ;) and pipe in accelerometer data via uniforms and such. The editor is basic, but at least does syntax highlighting and it provides compiler output. I can see me using this to make exe graphics while waiting for stuff. Oh, and it runs on both iPhone + iPad which is a bonus.
Both of those are paid apps but they're both pretty cheap. Neither will make iOS apps, although both could be useful (glsl studio mainly, for trying out shaders away form the desk). I think there's a framework somewhere for running codea projects on the web.
Any other good apps out there?
There have been a couple of promising apps for iOS in the last couple of months that I've tried out:
- Codea. Runs on iPad only, targeted really at simple game prototyping but it's pretty good fun. You code in lua, and the editor is good for a tablet. Graphics in the initial version were limited to sprites, a few 2d primitives + alpha blending, I think they've opened it to direct pixel writing now but haven't had much time to experiment lately.
- GLSL studio. This seems to be pretty new, and I just installed it last night. Haven't had time to really push it but it looks promising! You can load in textures (or hook the camera to a texture uniform), use a few basic objects (only interested in one, the full-screen rect ;) and pipe in accelerometer data via uniforms and such. The editor is basic, but at least does syntax highlighting and it provides compiler output. I can see me using this to make exe graphics while waiting for stuff. Oh, and it runs on both iPhone + iPad which is a bonus.
Both of those are paid apps but they're both pretty cheap. Neither will make iOS apps, although both could be useful (glsl studio mainly, for trying out shaders away form the desk). I think there's a framework somewhere for running codea projects on the web.
Any other good apps out there?
Slightly OT, but I imagine coding on some mobile device (even on a tablet) pretty painful. And when on a long flight, why not carry a small notebook?!
WebGL support + internet + shadertoy? :)
Possibly only some of the Xperia phones that currently support WebGL out in the wild (and I have no idea how good that support is), but "things should improve with time".
Possibly only some of the Xperia phones that currently support WebGL out in the wild (and I have no idea how good that support is), but "things should improve with time".
GLSL Sandbox can run locally.
raer: I'd say if you were doing "serious" dev, definitely. But for some light (and not too code-heavy) prototyping/experimenting or just editing a shader it's pretty OK. On a phone it's obviously painful, but there I'd write something on a desktop (or tablet) and then just tweak/edit it on the phone. That's not painful, and can be productive. I'd say for serious work I'd take the laptop every time, for a bit of fun I think it's not worth the extra weight, a tablet is ok.
Korvkiosken: if your phone supports webgl yes - iOS doesn't (at least not in the browser) so this isn't an option for me. I think you'd want a mobile UI for the site though, and a native app will probably be much more usable. In GLSL sandbox I can't even select text on the iPhone to copy + paste it out :( Also, features like camera access probably aren't possible in the browser.
Korvkiosken: if your phone supports webgl yes - iOS doesn't (at least not in the browser) so this isn't an option for me. I think you'd want a mobile UI for the site though, and a native app will probably be much more usable. In GLSL sandbox I can't even select text on the iPhone to copy + paste it out :( Also, features like camera access probably aren't possible in the browser.
I tried GLSL Studio on my iPhone 4 and while it's neat that such things exist, I doubt I will every use it again even if I'm really really really bored.
There's a clone of iq's shadertoy on the android market with not as many shaders. I've written a tunnel with it but that's about it because I don't have a hardware keyboard and the touchscreen starts to annoy you after a while (you have to press a sequence of 4 buttons for a curly brace!)
pete: problem with the app, or dislike of coding on an iPhone? (cause if it's the app, the dev seems like a nice guy and would probably want to know why :)