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Welcome to our website!

Mabuhay! Benvenuti!

We are two Digital Transformation Management students of Università di Bologna – Campus di Cesena.

This website is a narration of our experiences with BeeWare as a software used to code our first Python-native mobile application.

In this website, we will show how we put our abilities to the test by coding two mobiles apps namely: the translator and a gamified word-guessing app, Hangman.

Just a little disclaimer! ⚠

We are not programmers nor we claim to be developers. We are not experts in BeeWare nor in the Python programming language. We do not, in any circumstance, claim that our way is the ONLY way.

We are simply students who just started our coding journey and are eager to tell our story so people like us could learn a thing or two from our mishaps, victories, and challenges in between.

What is BeeWare?

The use of BeeWare for mobile app development

BeeWare is an Open Source environment that allows you to write your app in Python and release it on multiple platforms. No need to rewrite the app in multiple programming languages. It means no issues with build tools, environments, compatibility, etc.
BeeWare is a suite of tools and libraries, each of which works together to help you write cross platform native GUI Python applications.

Installing BeeWare

The "briefcase" method

To install BeeWare on your computer, you can follow the instructions in the tutorial on the official page of the BeeWare (click here). We used the "briefcase" program within the virtual environment of "Anaconda" which also provides the base version of "Python 3.9"

BeeWare as a Suite of Tools and Libraries

Write cross platform native GUI Python applications

Toga, a cross platform widget toolkit;
Briefcase, a tool for packaging Python projects as distributable artefacts that can be shipped to end users;
Rubicon ObjC, a library for working with Objective C libraries on iOS and macOS from within Python code;
Rubicon Java, a library for working with Java libraries from within Python code;
Pre-compiled builds of Python that can be used on platforms where official Python installers aren't available.

DO #1

Check the version of your Python

We already have the Python 3.9 from our Python Programming class. However, when it was time to use BeeWare for our Mobile Application Class, a lot of us experienced problem when it was time to run the briefcase (briefcase dev). The same thing happened to people who had Python 3.10. When we tried just downloading Python 3.8 and ran it through the Anaconda Navigator, the briefcase dev still didn't run.

Our solution, which, again, we don't claim as the ONLY way (but hey, this worked), was to uninstall our Python, including Anaconda Navigator, and reinstall with Python version 3.8.

Do #2

Write comments on your code

For the love of any Higher Being, do write comments when necessary. This way, the code becomes understandable not only by the compiler but by human beings as well.

FYI: A comment in Python starts with the hash character, # , and extends to the end of the physical line. A hash character within a string value is not seen as a comment, though. To be precise, a comment can be written in three ways - entirely on its own line, next to a statement of code, and as a multi-line comment block.

DOs and DON'Ts

DON'T #1

Forget to double-check your code

This is not exclusive to Python as any programming language is just as sensitive.

Do not forget to close all the open parentheses.

Do not forget to put the # at the beginning of every comment.

The devil is indeed in the details, especially when coding.

DON'T #2

Take ownership of other people's codes

We recognize that it is just tempting to copy-paste codes from GitHub or other programming fora available on the web. However, these codes are essentialy intellectual properties of the coders or the companies that wrote them. Besides, citing them takes less than a minute anyway. We got this!

DON'T #3

Stop practicing

Just like any language, the more you use it, the more you'll be comfortable and be better with it.

This includes keeping yourself updated with the latest documentations.

Specifically, when coding your mobile app, there are updates not only on Python but with TOGA as well.