CoronaSDK and SublimeText2 Build System

Posted on January 13, 2012 | 1 Comment

I’ve recently been trying out different editors as I can see the end of the road for TextMate from where I’m sitting.   I really wanted to be super-awesome and finally learn vi or emacs, but despite several attempts, my brain hasn’t really latched onto them like it did when TM came onto the scene.

Now there’s SublimeText 2 (in beta) which is starting to be the editor that TM wanted to be when it grew up.  There’s still a lot of funky things with it, but I can see the potential.  Not to mention it’s cross platform like the ancient gods vi and emacs.   I suppose that’s really just icing on the cake because I rarely leave my home platform for reasons other than duress (Windows) or curiosity (Linux).

The one thing I really missed from TM was the ability to launch the CoronaSDK simulator from the editor.   It’s fantastic to be able to edit a file and hit a button and have it fire up the simulator and then start reloading the simulator each time the file changes. (actually the simulator does that work for you)  I took a look at the Corona bundle for TM and found quite a few lines of AppleScript that are doing the work (i kid not).

tl;dr

In Sublime, select “Tools > Build System > New Build System…”

This opens up a new text file.  Copy and paste this into it:

{
"cmd": ["/Applications/CoronaSDK/simulator","$file_path"],
"selector": "source.lua"
}

Save the file as “CoronaSDK.sublime-build”

  1. Go to your Corona project
  2. Open a file to edit
  3. Select  Tools > Build System > CoronaSDK
  4. Press Command-B
  5. profit!

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Posted in Misc

CoronaSDK: Building and installing on a Kindle Fire

Posted on November 29, 2011 | Leave a comment
Amazon's Kindle Fire

  1. Build the app using  File > Build > Amazon/Kindle…
  2. On the Fire, go to Settings and tap More
  3. Tap Device
  4. Turn ON “Allow Installation of Applications — from unknown sources”
  5. Plug in a Micro-B usb cable into the Fire and the other into your computer (in this case a MacBook Air)
  6. The Kindle should be showing up on your desktop
  7. Copy the .apk file generated by Corona onto the Kindle (I’m not sure that it makes a difference where — I used the “downloads” folder)
  8. Eject the Kindle from the Mac
  9. On the Kindle you’ll need a File management application installed (I used “ES File Explorer” because it was free and had the most reviews)
  10. Use the File manager to find your app and tap it to install it
  11. Profit!

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Posted in Code, CoronaSDK

CoronaSDK: How to know if a file exists?

Posted on September 27, 2011 | 1 Comment

Update: Dejay was correct, you have to try and open the file to know for sure if it’s there or not.

Want to know if a file exists before you use it?

Lately, I’ve been wanting something a little more dynamic in my projects for opening various Scenes (think Director, but not).   I needed a way of looking to see if a file existed or not before I tried to load it up.  Here’s the result:

function fileExists(fileName, base)
  assert(fileName, "fileName is missing")
  local base = base or system.ResourceDirectory
  local filePath = system.pathForFile( fileName, base )
  local exists = false
 
  if (filePath) then -- file may exist. won't know until you open it
    local fileHandle = io.open( filePath, "r" )
    if (fileHandle) then -- nil if no file found
      exists = true
      io.close(fileHandle)
    end
  end
 
  return(exists)
end

Typical usage:

if fileExists("myGame.lua") then
  -- do something wonderful
end

If the file does not exist, the CoronaSDK library function system.pathForFile() returns nil.  It also returns a Warning in the console, which can be safely ignored.

By default it checks your app’s asset directory (system.ResourceDirectory), however, if you’d like to check if a file you created exists you can pass in an alternative base path like so:

if fileExists("some_file.txt", system.DocumentsDirectory) then
  -- do something wonderful
end

The three valid options for base path are:

  1. system.ResourceDirectory
  2. system.DocumentsDirectory
  3. system.TemporaryDirectory

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Posted in Code, CoronaSDK

Tagged

Switching Heroku Accounts

Posted on May 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

Update April 2011: I now use the Heroku Plus gem to manage these accounts.

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Posted in Misc

Tagged ,

Optimize your Rails environment on OS X

Posted on March 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

Getting your development environment setup just the way you like it takes some time.   I’ve done it several times recently and this is the setup I feel most productive with.
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Posted in Rails

Tagged , ,