Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter
12
Codea
The last of the frameworks on our list is Codea. This was created as an IDE on the iPad. The
highlight of the app was and rather still is the editor, which makes editing, or rather writing, code on
the iPad fun. It has autocomplete functionality and a custom keyboard that puts commonly used
keys at your fingertips, rather than making you switch between layouts to reach certain numbers or
symbols.
The biggest advantage of Codea is that you can test your app on the target device directly, rather
than having to upload to test on the device or use a simulator, as is the case with other frameworks.
In this sense, Codea is the fastest and the most accurate simulator and player that you can use.
Getting Codea
The first step for getting Codea is purchasing it from the iTunes store; it is available only for
the iPad at the moment. The link for the Codea app can be found at
When you start Codea, you'll see the start screen, shown in Figure
12-1
, which offers the option to
either open some samples to study or start a new project. When a new project is created, Codea
also creates a skeleton template to build upon. Clicking the Getting Started button will take you
to a complete reference to Codea, including the reference manual, forums, and wiki, and the Lua
reference manual.
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