[Tuxmath-devel] Tuxmath ported to Android

[Dennis S. <de...@va...>]

Hello everyone,

I did a (partial) port of TuxMath to Android.  It is live on the
Google Play Android Market (
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.panaceasupplies.android.games.math
).  That link is not to an official port, it's just my own little
version of it.  I called it "Free Math Games for Kids".  So far 520
people have downloaded it, and 390 still have it on their phones or
tablets.  That is a pretty good retention rate for Android.
Especially considering that the initial release had some bugs, which
have since been cleaned up.

The source code is located at
http://github.com/dennis-sheil/commandergenius/tree/mathgame .  There
is a README file on that page which explains a lot.  There is a TODO
list which has a lot of information.  One of the first ones talks
about SDL_UpdateRect versus SDL_Flip.  My port uses Sergey "Pelya"
Pylypenko's port of SDL to Android.  It does not seem to handle
SDL_UpdateRect's well, and I usually have to replace them with
SDL_Flip's.  It's something I (and/or Pelya etc.) have to look into
more.

You don't need an Android phone or tablet to test this code!  There
are free and official Android emulators for Windows, Mac and Linux.
There are free development tools to compile all of this for these
platforms as well.  So any developer reading this can test this code
on an Android emulator.

The logical thing it seemed to me was to leave working and broken code
alongside each other in the Github source, and for my release, rip all
of the broken parts out.  For example, Training Academy works, and
Factoroids does not.  In the Github source I have both, in my release
I rip out Factoroids (and custom games, and high scores etc.)  The
other differences between the release and the source are the
aforementioned SDL_UpdateRect's (the temporary fix is to replace them
with SDL_Flip to get a cleaner look) and a method to make the credits
roll look better.  I describe how to do these two kludges in the
readme, and left the source as-is.  If anyone wants to implement these
kludges and it is unclear how to do so, contact me, but I believe it
is clear.  Of course, ultimately what we want to do is fix these
things.

I was very happy to see the on-board number keyboard in Tuxmath.  This
came in very handy.  The keyboard is a little bit to small to hit on
some phones.  Even the red X button in the top right of the screen is
a little bit too small on some phones.  I would say this is the #1
problem that needs to be addressed, it's my top priority.  Because
making the buttons so small on phones and so hard to push makes the
game less fun.  The odd thing is this varies from phone to phone - on
some phones the number keyboard is plenty large, on some phones it is
annoyingly small.  The number keyboard, and the upper right hand close
button have to be big enough to easily push on all phones.  This is
the most important thing to fix, in my opinion.

Normal sized hdpi (hvga), normal sized ldpi, and small screens are not
currently supported.  If someone wants to work on this, it's fine by
me, but it is not one of my priorities.

I've sent e-mails and spoken to people on IRC previously to this about
this port.  My idea is that I'm doing my own little thing, and my
release on Google Play is not an official TuxMath release, nor am I
looking for it to be.  But I'd like to help in the effort for Tuxmath
to have it's own Android version.  For my own little version, I have
ripped out some of the Tuxmath branding, and am planning on pulling
more out.  I certainly credit Tuxmath though in my Google Play blurb
and in keeping the credits listing (in the middle I added myself for
Android port, and Pelya for his separate work on a port of SDL to
Android).  I do not want to present myself as being an official
Tuxmath port, nor am I looking to.  But I certainly want to show the
credit.  As well as for Tuxmath to have its own official Android
version.  Anyhow, I talked in e-mails and on IRC about this, and am
interesting in your ideas on this and am open to hearing about them.

My readme file on github is a good thing to read if you're interested
in this.  Perhaps also the commit log on github - I fork Pelya's
Android SDL library, add Tuxmath source code, and show the changes I
needed to make thus far.  As I said, my first priority is making sure
the number keypad is large enough to easily hit on all phones, not
just some phones, but there's a lot that can be fixed.  Patches
welcome!

Thanks,
Dennis Sheil
Panacea Supplies