I’ve been away a while learning how to use Xamarin.Forms.
After struggling with Visual Studio and the constant cycle of update breaks code, finally get code working again, new update breaks code again, I realized something.
Codea is AMAZING.
When I’m using Xcode, I swear the time spent wrestling with the IDE vs. actual coding is around 50/50.
When I’m using Visual Studio, it’s also around 50/50.
With Codea the time spent coding is a whopping 99.5% or even more.
You guys don’t get half the credit you deserve. A practically invisible IDE that just lets you code and gets out of the way–and can make FULLY FUNCTIONAL apps (that’s right I’m screaming it)–this thing is practically holy.
Thank you @UberGoober! That’s really great to hear
Yeah sometimes I go to Codea to work on new projects now instead of Xcode because the iteration time is so much faster for graphics-related stuff (i.e., time between pressing “run” and seeing the result)
My guess is that the problem is that once you start fiddling with UIKit, you get mired in ViewController shenanigans and AutoLayout and then boom you’re back to struggling with the IDE all the time.
Unless you can figure some genius way to Codea-fy UIKit.
I think any UIKit that comes to Codea would be a more flexible shell for making tools rather than full-blown UIKit. More like how parameters works but more flexible and better looking.
@Simeon Since this discussion has already been made, I might as well give my input. I tried Corona and Unity because I wanted an engine that was cross-platform, and although they are powerful and have great APIs, I just always thought Codea was far more user-friendly and simple to use. The games are so much easier to make as well. In Unity, you have to drag and drop all the game objects, which is nice for other people, but the thing I like about Codea is that you get to draw in game objects from the code. Every time I try to use a different SDK, I always end up back to Codea. It is way underrated, TLL has to give themselves a pat on the back, great job!
Agreed, Codea’s API is straightforward, it is easy to use and extremely user-friendly. It usually takes me a long time to get used to a framework or an engine, this has never been the case for Codea. And it is fun to use as well @Simeon It would be amazing if your version of UIKit could find its way into Codea!
Just to say I don’t think you know how to use Visual Studio if it 50/50 but from my time it was about 75/25 but codea takes the cake with the 3d it does not make you write thousands of lines of code like direct x made me do. And it is simple to use the objects unlike unity. Codea needs to make a pc version. I would get it.
@UberGoober i think maybe @pac was trying to put a word in in defence of Visual Studio. From what i’m reading he didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, only to make a point that VS is not that bad… it is actually a decent IDE, with some things done really well. That being said, i believe your main point is still valid - Codea is trully great. (fwiw, my experience with Xcode is similar to yours… too much time spent wrestling with it)
