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Frequently Asked Questions


1. I'm new to programming, where can I get some help?

Here are some links for starting out:


2. Can I run Codea projects on my computer?

For Codea projects using features prior to 1.2, please see the LoveCodify thread here: LoveCodify which is a project started by forum user @SiENcE to run Codea projects through Love2D.

We are working to allow you to run Codea apps natively on Mac OS X and iOS.


3. Can Codea make iPad Apps for the App Store?

Yes. The first app to be published was Cargo-Bot. The source code for that app is provided as one of Codea's Example Projects.

It is easy to export a Codea project to Xcode and only a few further steps are required to prepare it for submission to Apple for review for the App Store. See David Such's tutorial: Codea v1.5.2: Export to Xcode.

Backend parts of Codea versions have also been released as open source code, known as the Codea Runtime Library.


4. Where can I submit bug reports?

Please use the issue tracker here.


5. Can I import my own sprites?

You can import your own sprites using your photo library, Dropbox, or your pasteboard. Just bring up the sprite picker and choose your Documents or Dropbox sprite pack. You can set up your Dropbox account from the settings menu on the Codea home screen.


6. Can I draw text on the screen?

Yes, using the built-in text API. For example:

-- Draw text on screen using the current fill color
text( "string", x, y )

-- Retrieve text dimensions for "string" in the current font style
local w,h = textSize("string")

-- Font style functions
font("FontName")
fontSize(size)

-- Retrieve advanced font metrics for current style
metricsTable = fontMetrics()


7. Can I share projects or get them off my iPad?

There isn't an elegant answer to this at the moment. For now you can copy and paste them, or use an independent tool to download and upload projects into Codea (see Codea under the hood).

To copy your entire project code to the clipboard, hold down the icon for your project from the home screen, and select copy. If you paste this into a new project, it will run, but all your tabs will be concatenated.

You can paste projects while preserving their tabbed structure. If you copy a project, as above, then touch-and-hold the Add New Project button you will be given a "Paste into New Project" option. Use this to paste a single large project copy into a new set of tabs automatically.


8. Help! My project is rendering graphics from another project

Please make sure you call background(0) at the start of your implementation of the draw() function. This will set the background color to black, you can change it to a color of your choice.


9. Codea corrupts my code. What's going on?

Please go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility on your iPad and make sure the "Triple-Click Home" option is set to "OFF." There appears to be a bug with Apple's UITextView that causes input to be incorrectly reported when this accessibility option is set to "Voice Over" or "Ask."


10. Will there be an iPhone version of Codea?

We are thinking about a simple player or viewer application for iPhone, Codea Play, rather than a full fledged editor.


11. Will there be an Android version of Codea?

There are no plans at the moment to build an Android version. We hope someone attempts this when we start open sourcing the backend of Codea.


12. Is standard iOS UI support coming?

We have pondered this idea, but there are many problems. You can find many custom UI like Andrew Stacey's vector UI or Zoyt's Codea style portable UI sprite pack.

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