It might be nice if TLL had a Gallery of user-submitted Codea applications - a single place anyone could go to for known-good copies of the best of the stuff you guys find. The “examples” is like that kinda sorta, but it only updates when you update code - this could be an online, user-browsable copy of what will be in current and future examples.
I would also suggest that rather than have people submit code, TLL simply picks it up out of the discussion groups, contacts the author for approval if appropriate, and then puts it up themselves, as both .codea files and as cut-and-pasteable code (ideally something nice and syntax-hilighted), along with screenshots and perhaps even videos. (I’d disallow submissions because you shouldn’t have to sort thru a zillion bits - see what gets a good response on the forums).
Why? Well - it would be nice for newcomers to have a one-stop-shop for third party codea code, stuff not in examples yet, stuff we as a community are proud of, that shows off . And it would be a good place for people considering Codea to take a look at what the code looks like, and how simple it is to get some really neat effects. It might even increase visibility to Lua authors who haven’t heard of Codea yet - a google search for Lua code would be more likely to come up with your site.
PS. As I was re-reading the above, it might be nice to add to the Main tab boilerplate something like:
-- Project Name (ie. replicate it in the source code)
-- Author:
-- Version:
-- Website:
-- License:
-- Created in Codea 1.3 - http://http://twolivesleft.com/Codea/
As a reminder for people to signify those items, if desired. Point is - it would give people shared with info they might be interested in, like what version of Codea they should run, and contact information for the author and the like. And if people don’t use it, meh.
Oh, and while I’m thinking of it - if Apple does re-allow .codea files - change the format. You should still be able to import old-style codea files in addition to the new format, but when you export please change it to be something standard, like .zip or .tgz or such. I thank you, the world thanks you.
I was thinking that - but I thought that better off may simply be to have a good place for it all. Links to posterous and random website are fine for ad-hoc sharing, and will continue to be - this is kind of a one-stop-shop for the stuff most would agree represent the cream of the crop.
Right now, http://home.bortels.us/decodea/results has a bunch of projects - and it’s easy for people to add to that. But - unmoderated, except by me, and my interests may or may not align with TLLs. (I think they probably mostly do, but there you go). Plus - no promise of quality.
I love the App store, despite recent .codea shenanigans - I think Apple almost has it right. If they made “quality” be their sole criteria, I think they’d have it on the head, and really really reduce the complexity of the approval process to boot (and I’d not have to jailbreak, because sshd and rsync would be available). They can’t - they have contracts with their third party vendors, the cell providers and the like - But there’s no reason TLL couldn’t put up a code gallery with that same criteria - “quality”. It’s not competition with the App store, as it’s free - indeed, it would drive traffic to the App store to buy Codea and other fine TLL products. So - good for apple, good for TLL, good for the end-users. The only real downside is the time to moderate such a site.
I was able to cut/paste a 32 line program from the kids section. Not sure how well it would work if those special tab charecters were in it. That may work for small programs or even large one that are broken up into small sections.
Maybe the way to go is to document how to cut/paste from the wiki, pastebin, git, and archives on one wiki page.
Then just keep lists of things in the wiki with pointers to wherever the author wants to host it.
The google sites thing is ok - but doesn’t allow “select all”, which will be important for bigger projects - scrolling down pages and pages to copy is sub-optimal.
The only thing I’ve found where the ipad will present “select all” every time is a textarea box. That’s what I’m using on the decodea page.
As for TLL hosting - I think it may actually help. If Apple sees that TLL intends to actively work with it’s community, and is presumably persuadable to NOT host certain apps (again, dunno what - anything that pisses them off), Apple may let the rest slide under the rug to save face. But - I’m really not thinking of Apple, or even of TLL - I think a central repo of “best in class” that TLL controls would be beneficial for the users at well. I’d use it, for sure, and I think it would be a great resource for newcomers.
What if TLL made a new row on the main Codea screen with all the code people posted. So it’s kind of code sharing. You can press a button that said you like it. The projects will be ordered from most liked to least. If one pops up that apple might not like, TLL kills it. So it’s not exactly code sharing.
maybe a late new year’s resolution to start