Tag: Programming »

Python isn't just a type of snake, it's also a very useful programming language. Pythonista is a new code editor for the iPad, designed specifically for Python. It even promises to be a useful learning tool for newcomers to the language.

In many ways, the $4.99 app looks a lot like other code editors. Its strengths come in the form of its extended keyboard, designed with Python in mind, and an interactive prompt that aims to make things simpler for newbies. The prompt completes pieces of code for users, as well as providing historical segments.

Bundled alongside the app is complete documentation with it easy to quickly lookup certain commands, directly from the editor. Snytax highlighting throughout makes this easy to read language, even simpler to figure out.

Given the popularity of Python (it's been used within YouTube, Spotify and Google), it's a great language to learn and code in. Pythonista makes it all the easier to do so while on the move.

Pythonista is out now, priced at $4.99.

kode80, LLC, developer of 1-bit Ninja, has unveiled their latest app, a programming environment for programming graphics in OpenGL ES 2.0, called GLSL Studio. OpenGL graphics can be created in this app, supporting vertex and graphic shaders. GLSL Studio provides plenty of handy tools for OpenGL developers - syntax highlighting in a native code editor, shader input management, vertex data generation, with uniform binding and runtime options also available. Images can be imported from the Camera Roll for use with textures in the app, with up to 8 textures able to be managed at once. As well, there's live camera streaming for camera-enabled devices, with the ability to create camera filters with OpenGL code, and to add these images as part of the managed textures. The app is universal and supports 3rd-generation devices and later, so OpenGL coders can code from anywhere, at any time. Projects can be exported from the app, either attached to an email or exported through iTunes File Sharing, and are usable in any program that supports OpenGL ES 2.0, including iOS apps.

In my youth, back when I was still in a school that ranked students' progress through the educational system with numbers and our "top of the line" computer was a 256 color Macintosh (not Mac, a Macintosh), I played a lot of adventure games. Mostly because they were all that was available for our non-PC machine, but also because I really enjoyed them. A good many of them were old Sierra titles but I also dabbled quite a bit in text-based games. I still fondly remember getting my hands on a boxed collection of a lot of these things, including titles like Zork and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I never beat any of them, but I would sit there and try for hours.

Now, I know there are some text-based adventure games and collections of text-based adventures games on the App Store already, but WibbleQuest is something different. It does allow users to partake in plenty of interactive reading, but it's real purpose is to create said experiences using a pre-constructed framework. Designed by Orta Therox, a developer with perhaps the most awesome name in existence, it's meant to be a pain-free (relatively speaking) tool for adventure manufacturing.

Users can craft their own tales with the aid of a couple of pre-built examples, and eventually work their way up to more extensive endeavors. They probably won't be creating a masterpiece right out of the gate, but with some practice (and some handy tutorials) they could presumably make a piece of interactive fiction about anything. As a former adventure-hound, this both pleases and excites me.

WibbleQuest isn't an app in the technical (or literal) sense, however. It's a prefab framework meant to be used on a computer. Games can be transferred to an iOS device for testing or just plain playing, but the actual creation takes place on either a laptop or desktop. Not an unexpected way of doing things, as I can only imagine how irritating it would be to try programming with a given device's keyboard.

The curious, anxious or even bored can check out WibbleQuest on its official website for free.

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Interview with August Trometer: Part 2: [audio:http://148apps.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/AugustTrometerP2.mp3]
To listen to the audio interview, click the play triangle above.
To download the .MP3, right click and choose "Save Link As...".

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Finishing up our interview with August, I ask him about what it is like being an iPhone developer in the lime-light, or Celebrity Developer. He talks about how much fun it has been to break out of the traditional role from time to time, and how it has really helped out his programming business.

I also get his opinions on Apple's filing to have jailbreaking iPhones judged illegal, what that means to the development community, and how jailbreaking is actually beneficial to the App Store and making the iPhone a popular development platform. August also tells us why he has avoided it.

Most importantly, August gives us the breaking story about the soon to be released app, YOWZA!!, and how it will change the way you shop and use your iPhone.

Listen to how August met Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman on Heroes) on Twitter, and joined forces with Rick Yaeger from MacMerc, to create a whole new business model for an iPhone app, and how they have tackled the problems of turning your iPhone into a money-saving shopping tool! And it's going to be FREE!

Here is a little taste from Greg himself.

Enjoy!

You can check out August's digital book, Optimizing Your Website for Mobile Safari on your Kindle from Amazon, or buy it in PDF format here.