ABSTRACT

loveCodea is a pure Lua wrapper to run Codea scripts with LÖVE on the desktop. It is a vastly improved version of LoveCodify. It's not a perfect emulation, but it's enough to run for example Codea's Cargo-Bot "example", if you dare calling it like this.

COMPATIBILITIES

LÖVE

You need LÖVE 0.9.2, earlier versions are not supported.

Operating Systems

Generally, all operating systems that are supported by LÖVE should work.

• Linux
• MacOS X
• Windows

Codea APIs

Supported:

• Most of the 2D API
• A bit of the physics API
• Parameters
• Persistence
• Single touches
• Keyboard (albeit invisible)
• Pre-defined sounds
• Simple http.request (no images)

Not supported (very incomplete list):

• Triangle meshes with textures
• 3D API
• Codea's buttons in the lower left corner

PROJECT STRUCTURE

Existing structure

• loveCodea contains all wrapper scripts.
• tools contains some helper scripts to ease the setup especially for complex Codea projects.
• sounds contains sound files for Codea's predefined sounds.
• tests contains some boring tests. Their main purpose is to test a specific functionality side-by-side on the iPad and the desktop.
• demos contains some of my own small projects.
• forum contains code found in the Codea forum

What you should add yourself

From the Codea Runtime or the Codea app copy the SpritePacks folder into the root folder of loveCodea and keep its name, the helper script can access this folder using the -s or -all option.

Also copy the Examples folder from the Codea app. Examples are always a good idea.

To extract files from the app locate it within iTunes, then use "Show in Finder" to get to the location of the app in a Finder window. Make a copy of the .ipa file and rename it to a zip file in order to unzip it easily.

The stage

The stage is a folder (usually with that name) that will be created to bring the Codea project and loveCodea together.

USAGE

Developer's workflow

To avoid file system clutter I developed the following workflow and automated it with a Tcl script. You're advised to use the script as well, but I will explain the manual steps later.

Example for the Bezier demo:

$ tclsh tools/stage.tcl demos/Bezier
$ love stage

For Cargo-Bot:

$ tclsh tools/stage.tcl Examples/Cargo-Bot.codea -p -all
$ love stage

Notes: -p scans the Info.plist and -all copies all available sprite packs into the stage (which is not necessary, just for simplicity). If -p is omitted the script will scan all files for class usage and try to get the hierarchy correct by itself.

Run the script with --help for all options.

Doing it manually

• Create an empty folder stage
• Copy the `loveCodea folder into the stage
• Copy your project folder into the stage; remove the .codea extension if it has one
• Create a main.lua file in the stage to load all necessary files

This is an example main.lua file for the Bezier demo at the time of writing:

-- Load loveCodea
require("loveCodea/Base")
require("loveCodea/Class")
require("loveCodea/ClassWithProperties")
require("loveCodea/Draw")
require("loveCodea/Image")
require("loveCodea/Matrix")
require("loveCodea/Mesh")
require("loveCodea/Noise")
require("loveCodea/Parameter")
require("loveCodea/Persistence")
require("loveCodea/Physics")
require("loveCodea/Sprite")
require("loveCodea/Text")
require("loveCodea/Vector")
require("loveCodea/Z")
require("loveCodea/tween")
-- Load Bezier
require("Bezier/main")

Special Linux note: The main file in the stage must be named "main.lua", in lower case, not "Main.lua".

Other possibilities

Use tools/gen.tcl to generate a single file loveCodea.lua. You can copy this file into your project folder and add this at the top of main.lua:

if require ~= nil then
    require("loveCodea")
    require(" ... extra Lua files ... ")
    require(" ... of your project ... ")
end

The test for "require" allows you to use the file in Codea without modifations, as "require" is not defined there.

Copy spritepacks and sounds as needed.

Controls

• ctrl+8 Make screen smaller
• ctrl+9 Make screen larger
• ctrl+0 Reset screen size
• Arrow keys for gravity (try Examples/Cloth Simulation)

Extras

minifileserver and the iPad

The tool minifileserver.tcl acts as a very simple file server. You can browse your folders with a web browser and get the contents of the files on your desktop. A special feature for Codea is the file all_lua_files.lua that is available when Lua files are found in the folder. You'll get all Lua files in the folder packed into one file.

Start the server like this:

$ tclsh tools/minifileserver.tcl

Or if you want to serve a very specific folder, set it as root:

$ tclsh tools/minifileserver.tcl -r demos/Bezier

Now, instead of browsing the folders on the desktop with the iPad, you can immediately load and execute files. The following code is a slight modification on tnlogy's code from here:

-- Remote Code by tnlogy
local url = "http://10.0.1.2:8000/all_lua_files.lua"
function updateRemoteCode()
    print("downloading code")
    lastUpdate = false
    http.request(url, function (code)
        lastUpdate = ElapsedTime
        if currentCode and currentCode == code then return end
        print("updating code")
        currentCode = code;
        code = code:gsub("function setup", "function remoteSetup")
        code = code:gsub("function draw", "function remoteDraw")
        print(code)
        assert(loadstring(code))()
        remoteSetup()
    end)
end

-- Use this function to perform your initial setup
function setup()
    updateRemoteCode()
end

function draw()
    if remoteDraw then remoteDraw() end
    if lastUpdate and ElapsedTime - lastUpdate > 2 then
        updateRemoteCode()
    end
end

Adjust the IP address and let the minifileserver point to some project folder. Copy the code above into a new Codea project and run it. It will load the real code from the file server.

OTHER INFORMATION

Tcl: My scripting language of choice. On Linux and MacOS you'll have a pre-installed tclsh (or can get one using the package manager). On Windows it is enough to get a tclkitsh and place it somewhere in your PATH or the loveCodea main directory, no need to install anything. Visit Google Code, the featured downloads should guide you well. This is at the time of writing all you need. The command to run Tcl is then of course tclkitsh and not tclsh.

THANKS

Thanks to Florian "SiENcE" for the great initial LoveCodify.

Thanks to JockM, tnlogy and other members of the Codea forum for contributions, ideas and bug reports.