1 How to: Making Android Apps

This is the start of a series on making Android apps using HAC. It helps if you have already run HAC and have tried to make the Hello World program described here:-
http://www.hypernextandroid.com/hnfiles/progfirst.html

Here is a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPDb0VcKF1U

However if you are very new to HAC then the links on our HAC website are a good place to start as they cover Installing HAC and building the Hello World program. Writing your first program is very important to understanding this series because it makes you use the HAC designer, introduces you to the layout of a typical HAC android app and gets you to run it on an Emulator or Android device.

Note, if you come here after writing apps in Java and using the Android SDK then you might get a suprise as we don’t cover any of that low-level stuff here because HAC users don’t need to know it. HAC and its screen designer wraps most of that up into simple commands so allowing users to be more productive. HAC doesn’t do everything that the Java and Android SDK can offer but its getting better with every release.

Installing HAC
Installing HAC itself takes just a few minutes but the prerequisite helper programs can take an hour to download with most of the time being spent by the Android SDK updating itself.
The install steps are very simple and are described here:-
http://www.hypernextandroid.com/hnfiles/proginstall.html

HAC Help
There is quite a bit of info around on HAC and its HyperNext programming language. We have two forums covering different aspects of HyperNext. Our HyperNext Studio forum covers using the HyperNext Language and building apps for both Windows and OS X desktop PCs. Our HAC forums are aimed at developings apps for Android devices.  The core HyperNext programming language is almost identical across the various platforms so if you can’t find your answer in one forum it might be in the other.

1. HAC Built in help
HAC comes with built in help that is available from the Guide Menu and Overview option:-

2. Help PDF
This is a PDF version of HAC’s built in help and can be searched.
http://www.hypernextandroid.com/binaries/HAC_help.pdf

3. Quickstart PDF
The Quickstart PDF is really meant for HyperNext Studio users but still has a lot in common with HAC.
http://www.tigabyte.com/docs/QuickStart.pdf

4. Language Reference PDF
The Language Reference PDF is meant for HyperNext Studio users but much of the content also applies to HAC programs.
http://www.tigabyte.com/docs/LanguageReference.pdf

Hello World Program
This describes how to create an Hello World program and also has a link to our YouTube Hello World video:-
http://www.hypernextandroid.com/hnfiles/progfirst.html

If you haven’t already done so then please try this because then you will see how easy it is to create an Android app with HAC.

 

HAC v1.05 released with Sprite Animation

This update has focused on improving the graphics speed on both low-end Android devices and emulators. It also introduces a sprite surface allowing easy creation of sprite type games. New projects include a basic Lunar Lander game and Aquarium sprite demo. There are also extra screen commands and the ability to direct some graphics commands to the sprite surface. The memory system and interrupts have also been improved so making apps even more responsive when in front and very low lag when in the background.

In all there are 47 new commands and functions covering sprite animation, screen canvas and network.

HAC has also received a number of improvements including the option to make controls invisible at startup. The About Box and Splash Screen designers have been removed as the Home card is the natural place for having a Splash Screen or About Box.

For a list of improvements see the release notes accompanying HAC and the posts listed in our forums.

Thank you to our forum users and others for submitting such valuable feedback.

Lunar Lander Game