Platform Capabilities

Abstract

Resources (services) provided by TouchDevelop are dependent on the capabilities of a particular platforms. Some methods of some datatypes may only be available on certain devices. They will not be listed by the TouchDevelop editor unless the target platform is set appropriately in the script properties.

Keywords

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

D.1 Supported Browsers

The WebApp version of TouchDevelop requires the versions of browsers shown in the table below.

Platform	Browser
PC, Mac, Linux	Internet Explorer 10, Safari 6+,Chrome 22+, Firefox 16+
iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch	Mobile Safari on iOS 6+
Android	Chrome 18+

D.2 General Features

Support for these general characteristics of the TouchDevelop system is provided by the WebApp for all supported platform/browser combinations and by the TouchDevelop app v2.11 for Windows Phones:

• The full TouchDevelop scripting language

• Execution of TouchDevelop scripts

• Editing of TouchDevelop scripts

• Offline editing and script execution

• Ability to login with a Microsoft, Facebook or Google account

These sections of a TouchDevelop script may be used in a script that is to be executed in a browser but cannot be used yet in a script to be run on the Windows phone:

• Pages and Boxes (see Chapter 10)

• Libraries making use of Records (see Chapter 2)

D.3 Supported Sensors and Devices

Even if a tablet or computer possesses sensors and devices that a TouchDevelop script could normally utilize, the operating system may disallow access, or make access difficult, for programs running in a browser. The table below shows the current status of which sensors and devices may be accessed on which platform. (Note: all these sensors and devices are supported on a Windows phone.)

Sensor/Device	Support Status
Accelerometer	Available for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch. Emulated on PC, Mac, Linux by tracking mouse (or finger touch) movements. Emulated on Android by tracking device orientation; the acceleration vector has a fixed magnitude.
Camera	Available with Chrome browser on PC, Mac, Linux and Android.
Compass	Available for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android.
Gyroscope	Available for iPad, iPhone, iPod.
Microphone	Planned to be available for iPad, iPhone, iPod and Android.
Motion	Planned to be available for iPad, iPhone, iPod and Android.
Phone	Available if the device has phone call capability or if Lync or Skype is installed.
Orientation	Planned to be available for iPad, iPhone, iPod and Android.

D.4 Support for Services/Resources

With one exception all the resources (or services) provided by the TouchDevelop API and listed in Appendix B are available on the Windows Phone. That exception is the language translation services provided by Project Hawaii. They are temporarily unavailable.

The resources listed in the table below have limited support or no support on the PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android platforms.

Resource	Support Status
social/calendar	No support for accessing a user’s calendar through the social resource
social/contacts	No support for accessing contacts through the social resource
media/songs	No support for accessing songs or song albums through the media resource
media/pictures	No support for accessing pictures or picture albums through the media resource

D.5 Support for Created Apps

A created app refers to an app which has been exported to the Windows Phone Store or to the Windows Store (which holds apps for the Surface tablet and PCs which run the Windows 8 operating system).

D.5.1 Apps for Windows Phone Store

The scripts cannot make use of boxes and pages or libraries.

The scripts cannot make use of the language translation services provided by Project Hawaii.

D.5.2 Apps for Windows Store

The script cannot make use of a gyroscope or microphone or motion sensors or orientation sensors, but future support for these devices is planned.