Lua Carousel Devlog - itch.iohttps://akkartik.itch.io/carouselWrite programs on desktop and mobilehttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/1480176/lua-carousel-better-support-for-french-and-hopefully-other-languagesLua Carousel: better support for French and hopefully other languageshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/1480176/lua-carousel-better-support-for-french-and-hopefully-other-languagesSat, 04 Apr 2026 19:18:49 GMTdevlogGarvalf is a French-speaking Forth enthusiast trying out Lua Carousel on a computer. It's lovely that I can run Garvalf's interactive rotating beauty on my English-based phone: -- use mouse wheel to c...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/1316491/4-versions-in-3-months-but-only-minor-changes4 versions in 3 months, but only minor changeshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/1316491/4-versions-in-3-months-but-only-minor-changesFri, 16 Jan 2026 02:37:04 GMTdevlogSince the last update in Sep there have been 4 new versions but with only minor changes: Wrapping lines are indicated in the code editor with little grey circles and grey hyphens. Scrollbars have some...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/1023111/programming-on-your-device-with-your-preferred-languageProgramming on your device with your preferred languagehttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/1023111/programming-on-your-device-with-your-preferred-languageTue, 02 Sep 2025 17:53:08 GMTdevlogLua Carousel is a free, open source, live-editable and trustworthy environment for writing small, throwaway Lua and LÖVE programs on computers or phones. Starting with this version, it comes bundled...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/943340/lua-carousel-program-on-the-device-you-have-with-docs-at-your-fingertipsLua Carousel: program on the device you have, with docs at your fingertipshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/943340/lua-carousel-program-on-the-device-you-have-with-docs-at-your-fingertipsMon, 12 May 2025 07:04:47 GMTdevlog

Ever since I published Lua Carousel 2 years ago as a lightweight programming environment for computers and mobile devices, I've taken pride in its stability. It has always tried to minimize change. Yo...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/888916/pong-wars-mmo-editionPong Wars, MMO editionhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/888916/pong-wars-mmo-editionSun, 16 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMTdevlogThis one is based on Pong Wars . -- Pong wars with more than 2 colors and ability to speed up simulation. local n = 20 -- px per square local v = 20 -- px/s ball velocity -- If v gets too big, collisi...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/887940/new-version-after-41-days-and-stop-motion-animationNew version after 41 days, and stop-motion animationhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/887940/new-version-after-41-days-and-stop-motion-animationSat, 15 Feb 2025 06:11:53 GMTdevlogToday's version has some minor bugfixes and API changes. Here's a list of key changes in the repository: https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/carousel2.love/commit/d88c57e https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/carousel2...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/866629/drawing-with-a-pen-on-a-pendulumDrawing with a pen on a pendulumhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/866629/drawing-with-a-pen-on-a-pendulumSat, 11 Jan 2025 07:39:03 GMTdevlogThe kids have been playing with a pen on a pendulum, and I started wanting to tweak the friction on it. -- We have a surface we view through a viewport. -- The surface has the same dimensions as the v...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/862256/new-version-after-16-daysNew version after 16 dayshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/862256/new-version-after-16-daysSat, 04 Jan 2025 19:20:07 GMTdevlogThis version is mostly cleaning up and tightening the radical rewrite of the previous version. There's one major bugfix: searching for text using ctrl+f now works again. (This is inaccessible in commo...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/846479/new-version-after-9-daysNew version after 9 dayshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/846479/new-version-after-9-daysThu, 19 Dec 2024 06:00:20 GMTdevlogAbsolutely no new features in this version, but the internals are radically rewritten. Nitty-gritty details are in this blog post from July. The new core has been in use for a while now and seems stab...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/835427/new-version-after-3-daysNew version after 3 dayshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/835427/new-version-after-3-daysSun, 17 Nov 2024 19:03:45 GMTdevlogThe bad news is the previous version only lasted 3 days. The good news is Origedit had a couple more good suggestions which have made this version better: On narrow screens the overflow menu now space...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/833887/new-version-after-40-daysNew version after 40 dayshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/833887/new-version-after-40-daysThu, 14 Nov 2024 22:59:52 GMTdevlogToday's version has 5 minor bugfixes. The repository has the details. But the major quality of life improvement that merits a new version: the code editor spreads out over the whole screen width on ph...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/826196/turn-your-phone-or-tablet-into-a-chess-clockTurn your phone or tablet into a chess clockhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/826196/turn-your-phone-or-tablet-into-a-chess-clockFri, 01 Nov 2024 05:37:36 GMTdevlogPlaying chess with the kids today, we finally started to feel the need to impose some sort of time constraint on moves. That got me to rustle up this quick program: Start_time = 12 -- seconds Curr_col...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/816414/guest-program-bouncing-ballsGuest program: bouncing ballshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/816414/guest-program-bouncing-ballsTue, 15 Oct 2024 22:20:56 GMTdevlogI just received a very fun program from Origedit . Enjoy! g=love.graphics rnd=math.random bs={} bs.gravity=10 function addb() local function dir() return (rnd()*2-1)*200 end table.insert(bs,{ x=rnd()*...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/810479/new-version-after-3-months-and-turtle-graphicsNew version after 3 months, and turtle graphicshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/810479/new-version-after-3-months-and-turtle-graphicsSat, 05 Oct 2024 06:26:01 GMTdevlogThis version may matter a lot to some people. I massively sped up `print` calls in Carousel. So if you are in the habit of printing a lot to the lower half of the screen, you'll want this. Someone ask...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/800017/interactively-zooming-in-to-the-mandelbrot-set-on-a-touchscreenInteractively zooming in to the Mandelbrot set on a touchscreenhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/800017/interactively-zooming-in-to-the-mandelbrot-set-on-a-touchscreenMon, 16 Sep 2024 05:32:33 GMTdevlog( Longer video ) I've implemented the Mandelbrot set a few times, but this was still surprisingly delightful. A basic version of the mandelbrot set is just 20 lines: function mandelbrot(x0, y0, w, n)...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/799413/a-little-timer-appA little timer apphttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/799413/a-little-timer-appSun, 15 Sep 2024 05:51:18 GMTdevlogA friend was looking for a timer app, and I took the opportunity to also package up my little helper for managing GUI widgets that I've shown before ( 1 , 2 , 3 ). I also added support for long-press,...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/756367/new-version-after-4-monthsNew version after 4 monthshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/756367/new-version-after-4-monthsFri, 28 Jun 2024 07:01:21 GMTdevlogNothing particularly new here, just a dozen or so fairly minor tweaks and bugfixes. Perhaps the most noticeable one is that I swapped the position of the copy and paste buttons in the menu. I found my...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/725703/visualizing-the-digits-of-Visualizing the digits of πhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/725703/visualizing-the-digits-of-Sat, 04 May 2024 13:57:41 GMTdevlogThe following program lets you scrub the mouse downward to find more and more precise approximations of π within the red optical sight in the center of the screen. N = 100 -- spacing between zoom lev...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/715338/a-little-recursion-problemA little recursion problemhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/715338/a-little-recursion-problemMon, 15 Apr 2024 17:16:19 GMTdevlogAre you reading this on your phone? Quick, see if you can solve this problem without getting up and switching devices. Convolving a list with itself. Given a list [x 1 , x 2 , ..., x n−1 , x n ], wh...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/708682/drawing-histogramsDrawing histogramshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/708682/drawing-histogramsWed, 03 Apr 2024 02:52:16 GMTdevlogWhen I last showed how one might draw lots of different kinds of charts in Lua Carousel , I mentioned that histograms were still an open question. I think I have a reasonable way now to work in suppor...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/706603/the-simplest-possible-ditherThe simplest possible ditherhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/706603/the-simplest-possible-ditherSat, 30 Mar 2024 18:24:08 GMTdevlogI saw this exchange yesterday: "Is there a trick for doing dithering that is so simple you can tell it to me in 500 chars and I will instantly memorize it and then never have to look it up again?" "Ad...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/702311/all-the-1-d-cellular-automataAll the 1-D cellular automatahttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/702311/all-the-1-d-cellular-automataSat, 23 Mar 2024 00:40:40 GMTdevlogHere's every possible rule for a one-dimensional (neighborhood-1) cellular automaton. All on a single infinite surface you can pan and zoom around on your touchscreen device. In 100 lines. T = 100 --...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/696079/a-sokoban-client-based-on-lua-carouselA Sokoban client based on Lua Carouselhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/696079/a-sokoban-client-based-on-lua-carouselMon, 11 Mar 2024 18:17:20 GMTdevlogThe kids have been enjoying Baba is You , and watching them brought back pleasant memories for me of playing Sokoban. So I went looking and found a very nice project that has collected 300 classic pub...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/686788/lots-of-chartsLots of chartshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/686788/lots-of-chartsFri, 23 Feb 2024 23:49:21 GMTdevlogFirst things first: I've uploaded a new version with some minor ergonomic improvements for non-mobile devices: some of the menu buttons now have keyboard shortcuts. They were noticeably more difficult...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/685707/a-little-programming-gameA little programming gamehttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/685707/a-little-programming-gameWed, 21 Feb 2024 03:11:42 GMTdevlogThe kids recently got a little paper computer and, perhaps ill-advisedly, I've been building it on my touchscreen computer. The way I rationalize it is, the paper computer gives no feedback on whether...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/678890/new-version-after-51-daysNew version after 51 dayshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/678890/new-version-after-51-daysFri, 16 Feb 2024 22:41:13 GMTdevlogI just published a new version with a few changes. Firstly, an incompatibility: creating an editor now requires a font, where it used to implicitly use the current font. I'm fixing one previous Devlog...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/673935/pong-warsPong Warshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/673935/pong-warsTue, 30 Jan 2024 15:06:35 GMTdevlogTwo seconds into a video of this little game , I just knew I had to build it for myself. local n = 20 -- px per square local v = 200 -- ball velocity in px/s -- initialize a w*h board randomly with on...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/668072/a-little-game-integrated-with-its-toolsA little game integrated with its toolshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/668072/a-little-game-integrated-with-its-toolsFri, 19 Jan 2024 16:59:47 GMTdevlogA week ago, my son (hearing that I was at loose ends) asked for "a game where you drag the player around the screen". This set some wheels in motion inside my head, resulting in this 3-screen app: one...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/665231/a-sprite-editor-in-100-lines-of-codeA sprite editor in 100 lines of codehttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/665231/a-sprite-editor-in-100-lines-of-codeSun, 14 Jan 2024 02:46:40 GMTdevlogRecently I've been mulling ways to add images to my Lua Carousel scripts. One problem with LÖVE apps on mobile devices is a paucity of ways to get non-text data in and out. We don't have https suppor...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/660061/some-squishy-ballsSome squishy ballshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/660061/some-squishy-ballsWed, 03 Jan 2024 19:00:48 GMTdevlogLast night I encountered the work of Karsten Schmidt , and was inspired to reimplement a tiny part of the merest superficial sample of his huge project . It doesn't actually implement any flocking dyn...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/656473/building-an-equation-plotterBuilding an equation plotterhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/656473/building-an-equation-plotterWed, 27 Dec 2023 03:49:25 GMTdevlogNew version with just a couple of minor tweaks: I wasn't calling car.mousemoved (akin to love.mousemoved ). Now I am. Fixed a crash due to UTF-8 in just the right place in the editor. This was somethi...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/654952/one-finger-to-pan-two-fingers-to-zoomOne finger to pan, two fingers to zoomhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/654952/one-finger-to-pan-two-fingers-to-zoomSat, 23 Dec 2023 17:58:33 GMTdevlogToday I'm learning to implement some gestures we take for granted on mobile devices. v ={x=0, y=0, w=Safe_width, h=Safe_height, zoom=1.0} -- viewport f,s = nil -- ids of first and second touches start...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/653245/the-lua-carousel-productivity-suiteThe Lua Carousel "productivity suite"https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/653245/the-lua-carousel-productivity-suiteWed, 20 Dec 2023 04:28:24 GMTdevlogAnother new version of Lua Carousel today. Not because of any new bugs or features, but a few small changes to Carousel's primitives as I try to use them in scripts. In particular, I've included the l...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/652184/a-voice-recorder-in-150-lines-of-code-well-kindaA voice recorder in 150 lines of code (well, kinda)https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/652184/a-voice-recorder-in-150-lines-of-code-well-kindaMon, 18 Dec 2023 22:48:43 GMTdevlog(Update: This post will no longer work as-is with the most recent version of Carousel. You no longer need to include the wav library. Also delete the function `save_wav` below, which is now bundled wi...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/651711/new-version-after-9-daysNew version after 9 dayshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/651711/new-version-after-9-daysSun, 17 Dec 2023 01:38:20 GMTdevlogThe good news is the last version lasted 9 days. The bad news is carousel-az-safe.love was catastrophically broken for all 9 of those days. So much for "safe" :( I'm going to try harder to use both ve...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/651545/conways-game-of-life-with-colorsConway's Game of Life with colorshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/651545/conways-game-of-life-with-colorsSat, 16 Dec 2023 18:01:00 GMTdevlogWhen I first started messing with LÖVE, one of the first examples I gravitated towards was this Game of Life with colors . I just went back to it and ported it to Lua Carousel. Very fun. In the proce...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/650868/conways-game-of-lifeConway's Game of Lifehttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/650868/conways-game-of-lifeFri, 15 Dec 2023 09:42:51 GMTdevlogPerhaps my favorite program. curr, new = {}, {} for x=1,Safe_width do table.insert(curr, {}) table.insert(new, {}) for y=1,Safe_height do table.insert(curr[x], 0) table.insert(new[x], 0) end end -- R...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/649349/handling-cascading-collisionsHandling cascading collisionshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/649349/handling-cascading-collisionsTue, 12 Dec 2023 06:02:18 GMTdevlogToday I finally managed to wrap my head around a program I'd been struggling with for a few weeks: moving more than one block in response to collisions. -- each rect is of the form: -- pos={x=..., y=...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/648849/pushing-objects-around-in-a-dozen-lines-of-codePushing objects around in a dozen lines of codehttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/648849/pushing-objects-around-in-a-dozen-lines-of-codeMon, 11 Dec 2023 05:01:41 GMTdevlogI've been playing around with detecting and responding to collisions, just with simple rectangles. Here's today's example, with lots of help from the LÖVE Discord that pointed me to the batteries lib...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/647726/playing-with-lves-physics-engine-for-the-first-timePlaying with LÖVE's physics engine for the first timehttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/647726/playing-with-lves-physics-engine-for-the-first-timeSat, 09 Dec 2023 03:23:29 GMTdevlogI thought I'd make sure today that Lua Carousel correctly handles LÖVE's physics libraries. No issues! And then my son suggested I could turn the example in the LÖVE tutorial into a very simple game...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/647054/2-days-um-no-0-days-since-last-bug2 days, um no, 0 days since last bughttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/647054/2-days-um-no-0-days-since-last-bugThu, 07 Dec 2023 22:38:44 GMTdevlogMy goal with Lua Carousel like with my other recent projects is to get to a point of zero updates. I want to get to an artifact that is runnable forever. My choices of Lua and LÖVE are driven by this...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/645755/version-ax-slightly-improved-menu-behaviorVersion ax: slightly improved menu behaviorhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/645755/version-ax-slightly-improved-menu-behaviorTue, 05 Dec 2023 06:28:29 GMTdevlogLua Carousel has two menus. Both now close more reliably when you tap outside them...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/645189/version-av-one-bugfix-support-for-lve-115Version av: one bugfix, support for LÖVE 11.5https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/645189/version-av-one-bugfix-support-for-lve-115Mon, 04 Dec 2023 02:18:36 GMTdevlogAll of yesterday's changes included a new bug: touches sometimes moved the scrollbar when they shouldn't. You can read all about the gory details at https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/carousel.love/commit/42...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/644647/version-as-major-improvements-to-the-scrollbarVersion as: major improvements to the scrollbarhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/644647/version-as-major-improvements-to-the-scrollbarSun, 03 Dec 2023 01:34:28 GMTdevlogTaps near the top of the editor sometimes failed to move the cursor. It turns out this was only happening soon after a drag of the scrollbar. Lua Carousel's scrollbar has always felt a little jumpy. I...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/644550/version-aq-mouse-wheel-supportVersion aq: mouse wheel supporthttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/644550/version-aq-mouse-wheel-supportSat, 02 Dec 2023 20:57:17 GMTdevlogI've been focusing so much on the mobile/touchscreen experience that I forgot to wire up the mouse wheel. This omission is now fixed, along with a minor bugfix and a few more abbreviations (example 7)...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/644227/version-ap-a-lot-less-jitteryVersion ap: a lot less jitteryhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/644227/version-ap-a-lot-less-jitterySat, 02 Dec 2023 05:45:35 GMTdevlogNo new features, only fixes for bugs. From most to least embarrassing: * If you selected some text and then hit the 'clear' button the app would crash. * Dragging the mouse/finger around on top of the...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/641310/version-ao-saving-your-programs-across-restartsVersion ao: saving your programs across restartshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/641310/version-ao-saving-your-programs-across-restartsSun, 26 Nov 2023 21:34:32 GMTdevlogThis feature was very difficult. Lua Carousel launched without the ability to save to and load from files because I struggled to juggle two constraints: Reliability. I spent a long time trying to make...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/640701/version-ajVersion ajhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/640701/version-ajSat, 25 Nov 2023 17:24:22 GMTdevlogJust minor bugfixes since the previous update. In particular, opening one menu hides the other...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/640487/version-agVersion aghttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/640487/version-agSat, 25 Nov 2023 05:06:29 GMTdevlogSome improvements to the settings menu. Embarrassingly, you could operate the sliders even when the menu was collapsed...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/640445/version-afVersion afhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/640445/version-afSat, 25 Nov 2023 02:48:16 GMTdevlogFixed 2 catastrophic bugs if the window gets too narrow when resizing or updating fonts. Carousel should now throw an error if the window is too small. If you then grow the window and press a key it w...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/639932/version-adVersion adhttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/639932/version-adFri, 24 Nov 2023 00:24:55 GMTdevlogLua Carousel's biggest limitation is its inability to save code across restarts. I can't yet come up with a good, simple UI for selecting filenames that supports small devices and also autosaves. One...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/639865/safe-versionsSafe versionshttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/639865/safe-versionsThu, 23 Nov 2023 20:32:29 GMTdevlogI just uploaded carousel-ac-safe.love. The other ac is preferable, but use this as a backup if the other one gives you errors. Lua Carousel has lots of unit tests for the editor it uses. But the tests...

]]>https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/639862/version-acVersion achttps://akkartik.itch.io/carousel/devlog/639862/version-acThu, 23 Nov 2023 20:13:24 GMTdevlogYou can now select smaller font sizes, all the way down to 12px...

]]>