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Thank you, Thomas.
I will put storyboard in the list then. It is important for us to be able to develop the app once and run in several targets without too much recoding (we will be very few people developing and want to develop several apps targeting different engineering tools, and would like to dedicate the time improving the engeneering solution and not fighting against several UI frameworks). So, if Crank can run in Android, windows phone, windows and other platforms out of the box (without the burden of generating an embeded system), and develope the UI easily, it is a software we should give a try. But Storyboard does no seem to run under iOS, does it? I don't have iPad and Apple targets in great appreciation, but iPad is an initial requirement, as one of the guys in the team says it is a platform widely spread among the mining and civil engineers. Thanks to your colaboration and to Steve and the ideas provided in these thread know I have more options and konwing of the limitations. Simply put I see these solutions: 1- Crank storyboard. Easy to develope UI and multiplatform, Lua compatible and meets our requirements, except may be for the iOS compatibility, which may make it not an option (I have to discuss with the team if iOS is that important or not). Price may be another limitation (don't know license price, but I expect it not to be cheap). 2- Corona. It is easy to develop for iOS and Android, but its UI widgets are too limited, and it seems not easily extensible with libraries of any kind written in C or C++. Its price is reasonable. 3- Use the scripting SDK for Android and a Lua interpreter and iPhone wax in iOS generating a Lua interpreter in Objective-C with no modification. Code the application entirely in Lua but use the native UI widgets (wax to access the iOS interfaces and the google scripting sdk to access the native widgets of Android). I think it won't be difficult to get the interpreters running (although we have no expertise with Objective-C at all, but we have coded in C++ and C). The problem is that we have to learn the two native UI frameworks. There is no license fees for the developing environment, but will take more time to get it running the first time (if we can do it). 4- An alternative that I don't know if is feasable is to generate a Lua interpreter containing the IUP and CD and IM C libraries. It seems Objective-C is able to compile code in C++ an C, and it should be posible to link a C library with it (I am not sure of this). Android and its NDK seem to be able to compile C code too. Thus we would be able to generate the interface completly in Lua and UIP. To access tablet special functions like the GPS, accelerometer or gestures, we still will have to write some native code. It should be posible, but don't know if we are going to be able to do it, as we have no expertize with objective-C or the Android NDK. Do you think it is a real posibility? Is it that difficulto to compile IUP, CD and IM libraries to iOS and Android? 5-Use Mono and C# for most of the development (MonoTouch and MonoDroid). It seems entirely feasable, but we have to develop completly separate interfaces for Android and iOS, as in option 3. If we want to integrate Lua to be able to run user scripts (not posible in iOS due to licensing limitaions) there is a Lua interpreter written in C# that we could integrate in the application. These are the options I know off, each one with its pros and cons (may be I am a bit optimistic with option 4 ;) ). If any of you or other have any comments about these options, any opinions will be wellcome. Regards Fernando > Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:17:00 -0400 > From: thomas@cranksoftware.com > Subject: Re: Best framework to LUA developing in Tablets? Is it possible? > To: ariznaf@uniovi.es; lua-l@lists.lua.org > > > From: "Fernando Ariznavarreta Fdez." <ariznaf@ingdes.org> > >________________________________________ > >Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 07:35:09 -0400 > >From: thomas@cranksoftware.com > >To: lua-l@lists.lua.org > >Subject: Re: Best framework to LUA developing in Tablets? Is it possible? > > > > > >I found the software quite interesting for embebed system development. > >But it seems too advance and sophiticated for our modest intent. > >We just try to make a "standard app" that could be run under several > >tablet platforms, no to develop > >a sophiticated embebded system. > > And users should be able to download the app just as they do with other > >apps for their platform (iOS or Android). > > Installing an embeded runtime for running the app is not an option (I > >could not understand if crank software installs its > own runtime in the > >tablet target or compiles to the target). > > > But crank software has several products under storyboard umbrella, may > >be I am missing the point an there is really a > > > product for what we want: develop the user interface using a RAD tool > >and program logic under Lua. > > > I am not asking for free software, but our budget is limited (we can not > >afford a 2000$ license fee, don¡t know the price > of storyboard suite). > > > Thank you for your guidance, I would be gratefull if you can clarify > >some of my questions about storyboard. > > > One of the embedded targets that Storyboard can generate a package for is > Android. In this case what > Storyboard will generate will be an APK that can be dropped onto any phone > or tablet (or other Android > based device). > > While Storyboard can certainly be used to develop sophisticated embedded > user interfaces, it can also be > used to quickly generate simple single screen applications. If you > download the full evaluation (free) > then you will see just how quickly you can build an application if you > have some of the images from the > UI that you want to incorporate. What you can do in 5 minutes with > Storyboard is typically a day or > more of work with most environments. > > Of course as you mention, Storyboard is a commercial product so that may > hinder your ability to select > it, but I would certainly encourage you to give it a try. > > Thanks, > Thomas > > > > |