From the Forum — Issue #74

29 May 2015

From the Forum — Issue #74

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. A dandy of a tip for custom fonts

There are several resources out there that show Corona developers how to use custom fonts, which are fonts that are not included in the standard Corona SDK package. Whether you are using freely licensed fonts from fontlibrary.org or dafont.com, using something unique to your app gives it an undeniable hook.

Sometimes, though, those pesky font files just don’t want to play nice. Strange file formatting, incongruous spacing and other problems can keep a cool font from working on mobile devices. The forum thread below talks a bit about those issues, and also makes reference to a cool app that can be used to smooth these problems out.

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/56453-modified-a-font-file-text-doesnt-display-at-all-on-device

2. A treatise on metatable syntax

We all know that metatables are like ice cream: a moderate amount is fantastic, overindulge and you get a splitting headache. Tortured metaphors aside, the proper usage and implementation of metatables when applied to Corona specifically can cause developers to under-utilize them, or leave them out all in all.

Recently, a developer was asking about metatables and their operators, what each did and what purpose, if any, they had. What followed was an insightful discussion of metatable anatomy, and I thought it was just too good to let slip into forum oblivion. Head down to the original thread and check it out!

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/57078-help-with-metatables/

3. Are you print-heavy?

Using print statements, as everyone knows, is usually the best way to debug your code. Checking for breaks, missing collisions, hanging variables and memory leaks keeps everything running well, and your users happy with your app. However, what do you do with all of those print() statements when it’s time to release? Should they all be commented out? Should they deleted completely? Do you leave them in, just in case something should go wrong after release and you need to retrace your steps?

A Corona developer had the above questions and more when they posted in the forum, wondering what to do with those pesky print() statements. Not surprisingly, the veteran contingent of the Corona community came out in droves to try and give some answers, and even more helpfully, some context to what a print() call can actually do to an app from a performance standpoint. Truck on down to the original thread below, and if you have your own take, let us know about it!

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/57038-do-i-need-to-think-about-how-much-debug-spew-i-print-out/

About Alex

Alex Jackson is an indie developer and the founder of Panc Interactive, 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: @pancinteractive. Check out his new game Crosstown Smash on iOS, Android, and Amazon devices.