kivy-gamecamp-pong-tutorial/DEV_NOTES.md

Notes while working on Kivy

Setup of Kivy

• Went with pip install setup on Ubuntu 15.10 x86-64:
  1. Fork and clone the Kivy repo:
  2. Create a virtualenv
  3. Installed the following dependencies:

     libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev zlib1g-dev```
  1. `pip install -e .`
  1. `make test` to verify working setup.
  
  
  

Linux Device Issues:

• Running into device permission errors, mostly like caused by the touchscreen or touchpad:

    [INFO   ] [GL          ] NPOT texture support is available
     Exception in thread Thread-1:
     Traceback (most recent call last):
       File "/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 810, in __bootstrap_inner
         self.run()
       File "/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 763, in run
         self.__target(*self.__args, **self.__kwargs)
       File "/home/dorian.pula/pycon_sprints/kivy/kivy/input/providers/mtdev.py", line 219, in _thread_run
         _device = Device(_fn)
       File "/home/dorian.pula/pycon_sprints/kivy/kivy/lib/mtdev.py", line 143, in __init__
         self._fd = os.open(filename, os.O_NONBLOCK | os.O_RDONLY)
     OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/dev/input/event7'
     
    [INFO   ] [Base        ] Leaving application in progress...

• Adding user to input device did not work.
• This may work: https://puredata.info/docs/faq/how-can-i-set-permissions-so-hid-can-read-devices-in-gnu-linux

Tutorial Improvements:

• Adding Ball Animation
  • Add in placeholder variable to describe the random direction of the ball.

Kivy File

• Properties need to be declared at the top of a section in Kv.
• Nothing in the Kv language specification on the order of properties / sections.

Kivy language

• Documentation for Kv language
• Documentation on language does not have an explicit section on adding comments.
• Nice to have tips for syntax-highlighting inside Kv files for PyCharm
  • Thanks @kjell for pointing out PyCharm settings