iPadOS 16.1 and Stage Manager

[HENRY LOWE]

I have an iOS Livecode 9.6.8 app that runs on both iPhone and iPad. The app uses custom code to handle screen redraws on launch (screen size varies by device) and when a device's orientation changes. Tested the app today on an iPad running iPadOS 16.1 with Stage Manager active. Stage manager is a new (optional) multitasking system available in iPadOS 16.1 and MacOS Ventura. Of significance here is that Stage Manager allows the user to resize the app window by dragging a control in the bottom right corner of the app window. Prior to Stage Manager iPad app windows could not be manually resized.

Under Stage Manager on iPad my app did not redraw correctly when the app’s window was manually resized. However adding a ResizeStack handler that called the appropriate redraw routines fixed the issue, though the screen redrawing is not a smooth as I would like. 

If you have a LC app that runs on the iPad you may need to handle user-controlled stack resizing under Stage Manager.

In the course of investigating this issue I also discovered that you can use the latest Xcode simulators (version 14.1) to test Livecode apps on new iPhone and iPad device simulators. To do so:

1. Rename the version of the Xcode app required by Livecode (e.g. version 13.2) to 'Xcode 13.2’. 

2. In Livecode Preferences -> Mobile Support select the Xcode 13.2 app as the location for iOS SDKs.

3. Download version Xcode 14.1 RC2 from the Apple Developer site.

4. When Xcode 14.1 is installed as Xcode app in the applications folder, launch Xcode and select ‘Simulator’ from the Xcode -> Open Developer Tool menu. 

5. In the dock, control click (right click) on the Simulator icon select Options -> Keep in Dock - this allows you to launch the Simulator app at will. 

6. With the desired simulated device open use Livecode’s Development -> Test to launch your app in the open Simulator. This has worked fine for me so far!

Also (as others have pointed out), the Xcode 13.2 app is disabled under Mac OS Ventura. You can still select it as the source of Livecode’s iOS SDKs but you cannot launch the app.

Henry

Ascriva Health Informatics