Hi all,
I’m not making much progress alone with Codea and wonder if theres any ‘teach yourself’ books that are either for Codea or the code taught is compatible?
Would any lua book do? or does it have to be codea specific?
Try this one. This isn’t specific to Codea, but it’s a great help.
http://www.lua.org/manual/5.2/manual.html
Thank you Dave
See the wikis link above, there are some there. I’ve written one on Lua and Codea. I recommend doing Lua first.
Thanks, I’ve looked at all those. They are good but I was looking for a codea based ‘teach yourself’ book.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t5im6tl14ky5t08/Codea%20for%20beginners.pdf
Written by Ignatz. It is designed for Codea.
Thanks but yeah, I read that a couple of weeks ago.
Been browsing book sites, I guess there’s no teach yourself codea book in publication.
While not specifically about Codea or Lua - I would recommend having a look at the following book relating to Processing :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Processing-Programming-Handbook-Designers-Artists/dp/0262182629
As @Simeon and @John at TLL have mentioned a number of times over the years, ‘Processing’ initially proved to be the inspiration for Codea.
While Processing is based upon Java rather than Lua, lots of the examples in this book can be easily ported across and are really useful for getting your head around basic ‘graphics’ programming concepts. Indeed, it uses the familiar Setup() and Draw() loop constructs as well as many of the simpler drawing entities and matrix ops which are pretty darn similar to how you would do things in Codea.
I think as a general sourcebook for simple ‘visual programming’ I think it’s most excellent IMHO. 
Thanks a lot, that looks great
Edit:- I just ordered it, hope it helps me 
@Paul123 If you’re still looking for a book, try this.
http://scite-ru.googlecode.com/files/Programming%20in%20Lua%202ed.pdf
@Paul123 All you need: http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html
Edit: Dave posted the 5.2 above, I’m sure Codea still uses 5.1 though… There’s not much difference except deprecated functions and new ones that won’t exist in Codea lua.
@Paul123 - I would read everything you can possibly find, because you’ll find they all add something (I found the official Lua manual useful, but way too technical until I had some understanding of Lua - so I used it more for reference lookup than for teaching stuff).
Also, have a look at some of the code posted in the forum.
There are also some step by step projects posted in the wiki link above. They take you through a project slowly, showing how to add features.
Thanks guys.
I have been trawling the example forum and also the code people put on CC and… Well…
I hate to be negative but, regarding games. I really can’t see anything impressive out there, but I know you guys are really good programmers and that leads me to the conclusion that codea is either a: not designed for games and thus struggles with them or b: codea as cool as it is, simply isn’t that good.
I’m not bashing the app at all, I’m only saying my thoughts as I wonder if other apps might be better for making your own games?
@Paul123, look at these great games made with Codea:
There are plenty more, these are just some of my favorites
@Paul123 - I use Codea to learn about building graphical apps and games. Sure, it can build whole games, but until you have significant skills, you shouldn’t dream of publishing great apps. Codea is really good for building your skills (and it can make good games too).
Thanks ignatz and Jak , tbh that was worded rather harsher than I meant, I don’t mean to hammer codea, just I would have expected the forum to be full of games people made.
As for publishing, that is not something I would ever want to do.
The book I ordered should arrive tomorrow, hope it helps.
Codea, actually, literally, was designed for games…
You can’t make anything good until you have the skills for it.
And by “real games” are you talking about stuff like 3D FPS games, platformers, tycoons, or what?
What do you expect from “impressive?”
Ok Sky, I understand what you are saying.
No, I’m not stupid enough to expect it to make console level fps games. I worded my text wrong, I just mean considering how long it’s been out, I would have expected the forum to be chock full of games ppl have made or are working on, you know like puzzle games and remakes of classic stuff from the 80’s. That’s the only reason I wondered if it wasn’t games centered. No probs :). I don’t mean to say the app is bad, not at all. Just wondered if it was more aimed at making non game apps.
@Paul123 The forum is full of games, you just have to look for them. Here’s one I wrote over a year ago. I don’t normally write games, but they usually pop up as I write other things.
http://twolivesleft.com/Codea/Talk/discussion/1548/reddots-game#Item_4