Resolution Independence: Automatically Scale on Any Device
Dubbed "Resolution Independence" by LiveCode programmers, this vital new feature takes on all the heavy lifting in supporting screen sizes from the tiniest Android Smartphone to the latest Retina displays available for the iPad
Edinburgh, Scotland (PRWEB UK) 27 November 2013
RunRev Ltd today announced the release of LiveCode 6.5, the first major release of LiveCode since their hugely successful Kickstarter campaign earlier in the year, culminating in the release in April of LiveCode Community 6.0, the free and open source edition of LiveCode.
LiveCode 6.5 brings the first of the stretch goals announced when the Open Source crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter smashed its stated goals and reached almost half a million pounds. Dubbed "Resolution Independence" by LiveCode programmers, this vital new feature takes on all the heavy lifting in supporting screen sizes from the tiniest Android Smartphone to the latest Retina displays available for the iPad. Programmers using LiveCode no longer need to worry, their app will just work and display perfectly, whatever mobile device it is loaded on.
This feature comes in two parts, Density Independence and Fullscreen Scale modes.
1) Density Independence
Modern mobile devices come in a variety of screen densities which is measured in the number of pixels that are packed into in an inch of the screen (PPI). The purpose of the higher density screen is to provide a crisper picture rather than more screen real estate. The iPad and iPad Retina are a good example of this. Apps look exactly the same on both devices, except on the iPad, the app looks crisper.
LiveCode now scales your app depending on the density of the device it is running on. Text and graphics are scaled automatically and if made available by the developer, LiveCode will choose higher resolution images when running on high density devices. A LiveCode developer can now create a stack that is 1024x768 which will run perfectly on both iPad and iPad Retina without any changes.
2) Fullscreen scale modes
Mobile devices also come in a wide variety of form factors. Livecode 6.5 adds a new property “fullscreenmode” that allows the developer to tell LiveCode how they would like their app to be scaled when run on a mobile device. Options include:
- empty (default) - the existing behaviour - the stack is resized (not scaled) to fit the screen.
- "exact fit" - scale the stack to fill the screen. This will stretch the stack if the aspect ratio of the screen does not match that of the stack.
- "show all" - scale the stack preserving aspect ratio so all content is visible. Some blank space may remain if the screen & stack aspect ratios do not match.
- "no border" - scale the stack to fill the screen preserving aspect ratio. If the stack & screen aspect ratios do not match, the left / right or top / bottom extremes of the stack will not be visible.
- "no scale" - the stack will not be scaled, being centered on the screen instead.
You can see a video of Resolution Independence in action, here.
Also in this release:
- Server graphics support - the faceless LiveCode Server engine can now load and manipulate images behind the scenes adding a new dimension to HTML pages generated using Server
- RevFont integration - easily load and unload fonts for use in your app
- Enhanced filter command - LiveCode's already excellent text manipulation abilities just got even better
- Text Measurement functions - easily determine how much real estate on your screen your text will take up
- 69 additional fixes and enhancements
Find out more about how to create an app using LiveCode.
Get the full release notes for LiveCode 6.5 here.
RunRev are currently offering a Holiday "MegaBundle" promotion with a raft of extensions for LiveCode if you purchase a Commercial license for 6.5.
About RunRev
Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, RunRev has a vision that everyone can code. It makes the open source LiveCode platform for building native mobile, desktop and server applications. The visual workflow allows the user to develop apps live, while the natural language syntax is powerful and uniquely accessible. Commercial successes include both SMEs and Fortune 500 companies. LiveCode apps have grossed over US $100 million and include #1 best sellers, enterprise business systems, games and productivity tools. The company is committed to promoting digital literacy – schools using the platform have seen a doubling of uptake for their CS courses. In 2013 RunRev began an exciting initiative to provide an open source version of the LiveCode software. The first version of this, LiveCode Community, launched in April 2013.
