Special

Introducing the “Welcome to Xojo” Bundle!

New to Xojo and looking for guidance? We've put together a terrific bundle to welcome you! Xojo Bundle

This bundle includes six back issues of the magazine -- all of year 21 in printed book and digital formats -- plus a one-year subscription (beginning with 22.1) so you'll be learning all about Xojo for the next year. It's the perfect way to get started programming with Xojo. And you save as much as $35 over the non-bundle price!

This offer is only available for a limited time as supplies are limited, so hurry today and order this special bundle before the offer goes away!

Article Preview


Buy Now

Issue 11.1 ('PDF')
Instant purchase and download via GumRoad!

REVIEW

Pythonista

Issue: 11.1 (January/February 2013)
Author: Marc Zeedar
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 3,773
Starting Page Number: 17
Article Number: 11104
Related Link(s): None

Full text of article...

If you're like me and interested in other programming languages, but don't have a lot of spare time to learn them, nor an interest beyond the hobbyist level, you should check out Pythonista, a handy iPad/iPhone app that lets you program in Python.

Because Apple places restrictions on what types of programming can be done on an iOS device, I don't expect to be able to create standalone programs within an app like this. It's more like scripts that you can run within the app, but that's great for learning and doing this on the iPad is more fun and less work than doing it on a full computer.

However, Pythonista does let you export apps as Xcode projects which can be opened on your Mac and compiled to standalone apps. While you can preview this using the simulator on the Mac, you need a paid iOS developer license to actually run it on an iOS device. Still, this adds to the value of this app considerably.

Within Pythonista you can edit, run, and debug the scripts you write. There's support for a wide variety of iOS capabilities such as sound, graphics, multitouch, rotation, and more. The Pythonista editor is customizable and very nice for editing code; support for external keyboards is also good. I haven't had time to explore everything, as there's a lot, but the built-in documentation is really handy for getting a handle on what Pythonista can do.

While I really wish someone would create something like this for Real Studio, the Python language is similar in syntax in terms of object-orientation "dot" structure and is easy enough to follow. If you're curious about Python or would just like to program on your iPad, Pythonista might be just the ticket.

End of article.