Writing apps for Firefox OS phones
Improving Life
If you run this game, your first complaint will pertain to the efficiency of the program. The program works well with small cultures, but it slows to a crawl as soon as the number of cells grows. I have likely overlooked ways of making GoL more efficient and the JavaScript more optimal. Feel free to give the code a bash by downloading it [11] and playing with it.
The second problem is usability. This app is screaming for a zoom function in edit mode. Even when the cells are 2x2 blocks on the canvas, they are tiny. No fat (or even thin) fingers will be able to place a cell accurately on the playing field without a stylus. Again, feel free to make your own changes and improvements.
Conclusion
Although the GoL app is far from perfect, it shows how easy it is create an app for the Firefox OS mobile platform and illustrates some of the ways you can implement the assets Mozilla makes available.
If you already develop web apps using HTML5, you're basically done. If not, HTML, CSS3, and jQuery are well-documented and relatively easy technologies to master, so you should be able to begin creating your apps in no time.
Infos
- Firefox OS Simulator add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-os-simulator/
- Assets you'll need to get started: http://buildingfirefoxos.com/downloads/
- Building blocks: http://buildingfirefoxos.com/building-blocks/
- Mozilla styleguide: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/styleguide/products/firefox-os/icons/
- How to write a good manifest: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Apps/Manifest
- Conway's Game of Life: http://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page
- jQuery: http://jquery.com/
- jCanvas: http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/
- Firefox Marketplace: https://marketplace.firefox.com/
- Firefox Marketplace developer hub: https://marketplace.firefox.com/developers
- Code for this article on Gitorious: https://gitorious.org/firefoxos-game-of-life
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