From the Forum — Issue #31

01 August 2014

From the Forum — Issue #31

Welcome to the latest installment of From the Forum. In this series, guest blogger Alex Jackson highlights outstanding threads from the Corona Forum. The goal is to bring attention to the most captivating, interesting, and thought-provoking discussions taking place in our very own backyard.

Please visit the forum to join these conversations or start your own!

1. Variable overload

Getting started with Corona and Lua in general could not be easier. Tons of tutorials, videos and templates exist for anyone looking to become a Corona developer. Eventually, though, you may run up against a problem that stymies many a novice. In your effort to keep your project memory manageable, always using local variables will lead you to a small problem. Having too many variables in one module!

The Lua limit for local variables is 200, which, while may not seem possible to achieve, can happen quickly when you’re not looking. The best way to code around this problem is to use a local table variable, under which you declare your other variables, which keeps everything fun and local! It’s simple, effective, and something devs new and old should keep in mind. Have another suggestion? Definitely share it with the class!

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/19555-solved-200-local-variables-limit-problem/

2. Online particle generator

I will never not love free tools for cool features within Corona. Whether it’s a nice tutorial or a map editor, they will always be welcome in my utility belt of developer awesomeness. Next in the long line of Corona-friendly options is a free online particle generator from developer hori. It’s a pretty cool tool that will generate JSON strings which are downloadable right from the website.

Go check it out right now, and if you do use it, don’t forget to say thanks in the thread!

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/49698-my-particlegenerator-site-particle2dx-support-coronasdk/

3. Multiple CoronaViewer installs on one device

I know I am breaking the number one rule of journalism here, but I am posting a really cool tip for the CoronaViewer feature that came from a post that I myself created! I was doing some testing with my CoronaViewer builds on Android, and trying to find out just if I could run several CoronaViewer builds on one device.

I was afraid that it was going to be impossible, as every time I attempted it, I was greeted with a java Runtime error. Sad face. However, distinguished developer RoamingGamer has come through with a step-by-step workflow for accomplishing this.

Check out the original thread to get those steps, and if you have any tips of your own, feel free to add them to the pile!

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/49904-one-coronaviewer-install-per-device/

About Alex

Alex Jackson is an indie developer and the founder of Panc Software, specializing in retro-style gaming. He has created several mobile applications, enjoys long walks on the beach, pixel art, and reading the Corona forums. Contact him by email or follow him on Twitter: @pancsoftware. Check out his new game Crosstown Smash on iOS, Android, and Amazon devices!