Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Tuxmath ported to Android

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi Dennis,

Wow - that is really cool!  I was checking my mail on my droid 3, saw this,
and a minute or so later was playing tuxmath on my phone!

It looks great as a start, with the most important issue being the small
on-screen keyboard size, and also the lack of alpha for the transparent
parts of the comet images.

We have a GSoC project this year to rewrite some of the games for mobile,
but this is still very welcome.  I would be all for you keeping the tuxmath
branding, plus giving yourself credit for the port, obviously.

I've been mostly inactive with tux4kids the last few months due to my real
job, and our website is woefully outdated, but I have to say I am really
happy to see this and would like to see an optimized, official android port
at some point.  When I update our site, I'll put in a news item with a link
to your port.

Best,

David Bruce
On Jun 14, 2012 12:51 AM, "Dennis Sheil" <de...@va...> wrote:

> 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
>
>
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