I got the OK from Lee to give out a little info, so here follows a wall of text...
First the disclaimers:
1. Whatever I tell you is currently in the product, may not end up in the final product - lots of things are still subject to change, so I'm deliberately going to keep this light on details.
2. There's lots of bits of it I haven't used yet, so I reserve the right to misunderstand any part of the commandset, and to pass this misunderstanding straight on to you
3. I also reserve the right to ignore any questions that a) I've already given details of, b) can't answer, or c) don't want to answer.
The software we've been given to test so far comes without an installer. This was a major problem with the first beta, and quite a few of the testers (including me) never actually got to the point where we could compile anything
The second beta (the current one) however, I managed to get working straight away, and I know that at least one other person has too through email discussions.
The IDE/editor.
The original intention was to use the Eclipse environment as the front-end – Lee was already having doubts about that choice, and has since switched to using Code::Blocks instead. It looks good and works well, but there is still some work needed for usability and integration, for instance:
* error messages still appear as error message windows instead of using the IDE,
* it's not easy to create a new workspace or project (I haven't successfully managed it yet),
* predictive text needs a very small tweak, for example, typing 'endwhile' leaves the editor in predictive mode, so that you have to hit the enter key twice to move onto the next line.
* symbols aren't detected by the IDE (variables, function names, labels etc). I guess that this is because the IDE doesn't yet 'know' about the AppGameKit language.
A nice bonus to the IDE is the ability to create your own templates, so I have set it up so that I can type 'while', hit CTRL-J and it fills in a complete template for a while loop. Hopefully the finished article will include many standard templates, but even if it doesn't, the template editor is dead easy to use.
Basically, I like the IDE, but there's a way to go yet.
The compiler: (Excluding the language!)
Most of the time it plays nicely, but on occasions it has failed to compile without showing error messages, or has compiled but runs with a white display. I don't know if it's me, my system, or the compiler, so we'll have to see how that turns out
I'm only running small programs right now, so I can't give an indication of speed – you'll have to wait until I've typed that much code
The base language:
* The square brackets for array subscripts seem very natural to me. Maybe it's my C and C++ background
Multidimensional arrays of integral types & UDT's are in place, but without bounds checking so far. Apart from that, they appear to work without any problems. There's no sign yet of arrays in UDT's, but we're informed that they will come along eventually.
* The brackets required for every command... not quite so natural. The only place I have problems is with the Print() command – everywhere else, no problem. I'll get over it eventually, and I still believe it's a good direction to move in.
Command set:
It's very light on the simple stuff right now – no sin/cos/tan, no val, no array manipulation functions – so it's a little difficult to do get a real handle on the core of the language.
That said, the commands within other command groups are beginning to give a real nice feel to the language.
* Sync() is available, or you can call other commands instead to give the same functionality but under your control. The refresh rate is fixed at this point - I've no idea if that will or can change (platform requirements).
* The basic Sound and Music commands are provided ... I've not used them yet, and there's not really much more to say about them.
* Sprites & physics are fully integrated. There's no pixel-perfect collision, but there is box, circle and polygon with up to 12 points (alas you have to set the points yourself). They also have all of the functionality of DBPro sprites, such as depth, animation, rotation etc (although maybe in a slightly different form in some cases).
* Networking – I can't really give much detail here, as I haven't yet spent any time looking into those commands, but just the fact that they are present makes me look forward to multi-person combat via a phone in the office
I did notice however that there are some HTTP commands in there, so integrating your app with a web site should be quite simple.
* Last but definitely not least... Input. Mice and touch devices are supported, allowing touch/click, hold, swipe etc. It's not clear to me yet whether multi-touch is supported. Accelerometers are supported, or emulated with direction keys on those devices without one.
Help / Documentation:
It's early days in the documentation – each command available is included, but a lot of them need a little more detail. There are currently no code examples, except for those left in the beta by Lee, so the unfamiliar stuff is also difficult stuff (networking, extended input commands).
It seems that the help files we were provided with are a little ahead of the compiler though, as there are a whole commandset around text – from what I can see from the docs, text will be treated in the same way as sprites, and although they will use their own id system, they will be drawn in depth-order alongside sprites, and each 'text' will exist until you delete it.
Anyhow, that's all I have to say for now, at least until the next beta comes along. It should be enough to whet your appetites for a while
