Should there be options besides iPhones under File | New Stack?

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exmaria
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Should there be options besides iPhones under File | New Stack?

Post by exmaria » Wed Jun 20, 2018 5:56 pm

This is probably a dumb question, because I can't seem to find any info whatsoever on it, either here or via googling, but...

When I go to File and choose New Stack, all I see are "default," a bunch of iPhones, and "script only stack." Is there not a way to add other phone-spec options to this menu, if one is trying to develop for Android and not iPhone?

Thanks in advance for any clues... : )

Klaus
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Re: Should there be options besides iPhones under File | New Stack?

Post by Klaus » Wed Jun 20, 2018 6:10 pm

Hi exmaria (what's your new name? :-) ),

this is in fact possible, but demands that you mess around with the LC IDE Stacks inside of the application folder.

But since this will be gone with the next version, I recommend to just create a stack of any size and then set its
desired width and height in the inspector for this stack.

Best

Klaus

exmaria
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Re: Should there be options besides iPhones under File | New Stack?

Post by exmaria » Sun Jul 22, 2018 2:35 pm

Thanks for the response! My opportunities to work on this have been quite irregular at the moment, so only now getting back to my attempts at Android setup, which have been more daunting than expected (I'm currently getting a crash-on-startup on the Android emulator, for a one-button "hello world" app : P ; ) ). I am all for waiting for problems to go away by themselves in future updates ; ) -- when you say "this will be gone with the next version," what is actually going away, and when is the next version expected, to which you refer?

Thanks again : )

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Re: Should there be options besides iPhones under File | New Stack?

Post by Klaus » Sun Jul 22, 2018 2:39 pm

Hola exmaria,
when you say "this will be gone with the next version," what is actually going away, and when is the next version expected, to which you refer?
I mean, if you NOW "hack" into the IDE of the current version to have more option in the "New Stack" menu,
then this will be gone in the next version of LC. whenever this will be releaed. Get the picture?

You could create a little plugin which can do what you want.


Best

Klaus

bogs
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Re: Should there be options besides iPhones under File | New Stack?

Post by bogs » Sun Jul 22, 2018 3:47 pm

Hola!

Excuse my ignorance in this area (I do nothing with mobile at all), but I had assumed (yah, that word again) that the different "i" device listings were the equivalent of different android device listings (or close).

Although I find specifying "iPhone x" a poor idea in that menu, they do present the size the stack will be as well. Why would you need to double the size of the list to present all the same sizes with "Android x" next to it?
Selection_003.png
Default Menu...
As well, I think it has something to do android devices not being sized by name, but again, I think the "iPhone" part could have been left out or replaced with "Mobile" and "Tablet", or alternately, just leave the resolutions for stack size which, oddly enough, is similar to how Hypercard itself listed them.
Selection_004.png
To something like...
Image

exmaria
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Re: Should there be options besides iPhones under File | New Stack?

Post by exmaria » Sun Jul 22, 2018 7:56 pm

Ah, I see - thanks for the info!

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Re: Should there be options besides iPhones under File | New Stack?

Post by FourthWorld » Sun Jul 22, 2018 8:30 pm

TBH I don't know why the IDE still has device-specific stack sizes. Even iOS has expanded enough to make it impractical to hand-craft different layouts for each device, and with the wide range of choices available to Android users it would be impossible to try.

Fortunately, no one does that anymore, made unnecessary by the excellent work the LC engine team did with implementing resolution independence.

Now most folks just make one stack that responds to the device its running on.
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Re: Should there be options besides iPhones under File | New Stack?

Post by jacque » Mon Jul 23, 2018 6:02 pm

@bogs, Android sizes don't correspond to iPhone sizes and there are dozens of different ones. Every manufacturer has their own idea about size and resolution. However Android does provide a limited number of named ones for the most common ratios. If LC were to add Android options to the menu, those would probably be the ones to choose.

But that wouldn't solve the problem where users think those are the only sizes they can choose. And we'd get lots of questions about how to choose a size for cross platform apps when the two are different. My own preference would be to go back to the old way where the default size is always created and the user resizes it on their own.
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bogs
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Re: Should there be options besides iPhones under File | New Stack?

Post by bogs » Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:59 pm

jacque wrote:
Mon Jul 23, 2018 6:02 pm
However Android does provide a limited number of named ones for the most common ratios.
Ah, from the outside looking in, I thought most of the phones/tablets came in a set number of sizes that were at least similar. I should have known better :wink:

I'm of two minds on the size offerings in the menu myself. Since I only work with desktops/laptops, and then within a certain size almost constantly, I don't often have to do any resizing. However, I know there are (usually) a range of sizes that are more commonly used than not, just like in the days of yore when HC came around, it is sometimes nice to have some of those common set sizes just at a click, so either road is ok with me.

Your point has a lot of validity to it, but if you *really* want to go back to the OLD way, welcome to the future past, cause we are already there :mrgreen:
Selection_003.png
BACK to the FUTURE!! Hypercard episode...
Image

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