Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Tuxmath ported to Android

[sasayins <sas...@gm...>]

Great! This is nice. We can port tuxmath in different platform so that
anyone can access the game easily. Thanks!!


On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 1:20 PM, 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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