‘YingZhi’ Editors Available In Cydia, Teach Python, Perl, Ruby, or Lua Programming Languages

The Tweak: If you’re an an aspiring developer or if you’re just interested in dabbling with a simple programming language or two, there’s four new tweaks available in Cydia that can help you learn about, write, and even execute code in phython, perl, ruby and lua. The YingZhi apps (YingZhiPython, YingZhiPerl, YingZhiRuby, and YingZhiLua, respectively) are each–at their cores–powerful script editors, but include features that seem tacked on with little rhyme or reason.

Issues: By default the YingZhi apps feature a distracting animated background image of a snowy sky, ridiculous ‘interface switching animations’, and a poorly written pop-up explaining how to navigate through the app. Thankfully all these unnecessary features can be ignored or disabled. There’s a the inexplicable addition of a light, a clock and a calculator.

On top of that, the English localization isn’t great. In YingZhiPython the Learn -> ‘System of Learning Materials’ subsection is almost entirely in Chinese, and the developer’s mailing link is under Settings ‘propose’.

Strengths: That said, the actual editors are fairly powerful. YingZhiPython includes a shortcut keyboard for the essential keywords, opporators, and variables–which are colored in appropriately. When you’re done with your script, you can press execute and it will run in a window. You have the option of sharing your programs through ftp, by email, transferring files through a web browser, or as text through a scannable QR code.

Where to get it: The YingZhi editors are available on Cydia in the BigBoss repository. They are free but ad supported, though the banner ads don’t take up screen space while you’re editing.

What do you think of these editors for python, perl, ruby, and lua? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.