 Hollywood IDE running on Windows XP | |
| Developer(s) | Andreas Falkenhahn |
|---|---|
| Initial release | November 2002; 22 years ago (2002-11) |
| Stable release | |
| Operating system | AmigaOS,MorphOS,WarpOS,AROS,Windows.macOS,Linux,Android,iOS |
| Type | Programming language |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www |
Hollywood is a commercially distributed programming language developed by Andreas Falkenhahn (Airsoft Softwair) which mainly focuses on the creation of multimedia-oriented applications. Hollywood is available forAmigaOS,MorphOS,WarpOS,AROS,Windows,macOS,Linux,Android, andiOS. Hollywood has an inbuiltcross compiler that can automatically save executables for all platforms supported by the software. The generated executables are completely stand-alone and do not have any external dependencies, so they can also be started from aUSB flash drive. An optional add-on also allows users to compile projects intoAPK files.[2]
The Hollywood Designer is an add-on for Hollywood with which it is possible to use Hollywood also as a presentation software and anauthoring system.
Hollywood has its roots on theAmiga computer. Inspired by Amiga programming languages likeAMOS,Blitz BASIC, andAmiga E, Hollywood author Andreas Falkenhahn began development of Hollywood in Spring 2002 after finishing his A-levels.[3] Version 1.0 of the software was released in November 2002, but only for68000-based Amiga systems. A month later, a native version for thePowerPC-based MorphOS followed.[4] Support for WarpOS was introduced with Hollywood 1.9 which appeared in Spring 2004 together with the first release of the Hollywood Designer, a tool which can be used to create presentations with Hollywood. AmigaOS 4 is supported since March 2005. Starting with version 2.0 (released in January 2006), Hollywood is using theLua programming language as itsvirtual machine, but with significant modifications insyntax and functionality.[5] Starting with version 3.0 (January 2008), Hollywood for the first time also runs on two non Amiga inspired operating systems: Microsoft Windows and macOS. Since version 4.5 (January 2010) Hollywood is also available with anintegrated development environment on Windows. Since version 4.8 (April 2011) Hollywood can also compile executables forLinux. Hollywood 5.0 was released in February 2012 and introduces support for video playback and vector image formats like SVG. Starting with version 5.2 Hollywood also supports Android. Hollywood 6.0 was released in February 2015 and introduces support forOpenGL programming via a dedicated plugin as well as support for theRaspberry Pi. Hollywood 7.0 was released in March 2017 and introducesUnicode support and support for64-bit architectures.[6]
Hollywood's focus is on ease of use and platform independence. It was mainly designed for the creation of games andmultimedia applications. The language set comprises roughly 900 different commands from the following fields of application: 2D graphics, sound, file system operations, text output, animations,sprites, layers, transition effects, image manipulation, saving of images andvideo files, time and date functions, input functions (keyboard, joystick, mouse) as well as mathematical operations and string functions. Programming in Hollywood is done via so called Hollywood scripts (using thefile extension *.hws). These scripts are compiled dynamically and can be converted into stand-alone executables. All Hollywood programs run inside asandbox, which makes it impossible for them to crash.[7]
Hollywood was designed to be a completely platform independent programming language. Thus, scripts cannot call any API functions of the hostoperating system directly and are limited to the inbuilt command set. Text rendering is also implemented via a platform independent font backend that ensures thatTrueType text looks exactly the same on every platform. Furthermore, all versions of Hollywood support Amiga specific file formats likeIFF ILBM images,IFF 8SVX sounds, orIFF ANIM files, to be fully compatible with scripts written on an Amiga system.[8]
There are several GUI toolkits for Hollywood. RapaGUI is a cross-platform GUI plugin for Hollywood which supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and AmigaOS. RapaGUI uses native GUI controls provided by the respective host operating system giving all RapaGUI applications a native look and feel. MUI Royale is a GUI toolkit for Hollywood which can be used to create GUIs using theMagic User Interface. Another GUI toolkit for Hollywood is HGui.[9] In contrast to RapaGUI and MUI Royale, HGui draws its GUI controls itself which makes its graphical user interfaces look exactly the same on every platform.
A special feature of thecross-platform compiler that comes with Hollywood is the ability to link all external files (including fonts) into the executable to be built automatically. This makes it possible to create programs which consist only of a single file and can thus be easily transported and distributed. Additionally, the Hollywood compiler can compile scripts into Hollywood applets (using the file extension *.hwa). These applets are smaller than regular Hollywood programs, but they can only be started on systems that have Hollywood installed. Finally, it is also possible to export Hollywood scripts asAVI videos.[10]
There is nointegrated development environment for the Amiga-compatible version of Hollywood. On these systems,Cubic IDE andCodebench can be used to develop with Hollywood as these have support for the Hollywood language through plugins.[11][12] On Windows, Hollywood comes with an integrated development environment that can be used to create Hollywood scripts. ThemacOS andLinux versions of Hollywood do not come with an IDE either and can be controlled from the console or else integrated into other IDEs.
AHello World program in Hollywood could look like this:
Print("Hello World!") WaitLeftMouse EndThe code above opens a new window on the desktop, prints the text "Hello World!" in white letters and waits for the left mouse button before quitting. The opening of the window is automatically done by Hollywood. If not otherwise requested, Hollywood will automatically open a new window in the resolution of 640x480 for every script.
 Hollywood Designer running on AmigaOS4 | |
| Developer(s) | Andreas Falkenhahn |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 7.0 / April 14, 2024; 11 months ago (2024-04-14) |
| Operating system | AmigaOS,MorphOS,WarpOS,AROS |
| Type | Presentation |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.hollywood-mal.com |
The Hollywood Designer is an add-on for Hollywood that allows the creation of presentations andkiosk systems with Hollywood. The software uses aWYSIWYG-compliant interface based on slides. Users can create as many slides as desired and fill them with texts, graphics, and sound. Hollywood Designer will then run the slides one after another or in a predefined order. Various transition effects are available. Additionally, it is possible to create applications which require user interaction, like kiosk systems.[13][14]
All projects created in Hollywood Designer are displayed using Hollywood and can thus also be compiled into stand-alone executables orvideo files. Advanced users can also embed custom code inside their projects. Through custom code it is possible to access the complete command set of Hollywood.[15]
Technically speaking, Hollywood Designer does nothing else but automatically generate scripts for Hollywood according to the layout defined by the user in theGUI.[16] The process of generating scripts and running them using Hollywood is entirely hidden from the user so that programming skills are not necessary for using Hollywood Designer.[17] However, because Hollywood Designer merely generates scripts for Hollywood, the latter is a mandatory requirement for Hollywood Designer.
The first version of Hollywood Designer was released in April 2004.[18] Currently, the software is only available for Amiga compatible operating systems. However, thanks to the Hollywood cross-compiler, it can also save stand-alone executables forWindows,macOS andLinux from the Amiga platform.
