Final post, Evaluation for 90349
Evaluation for Processing, standard 90349
We got introduce to processing in term 2 but our main concern was to finish 90342(the main WHS application standard).
During term 2 we look at processing on processing.org and what it can do. Terry also gave us some introductions to processing and we started creating our first bit of code. Processing is written in java code.
My brief was to create an interactive application using JAVA code. As interactive I had the idea of using functions like mousePressed, mouse Dragged, mouse Clicked or key pressed. Unfortunately I didn't know what I wanted to do so I started investigating on processing to get idea from what other people had done.
After looking around on processing .org, Terry taught use some easy processing to start with. First we learned how to setup the processing page using functions inside "void setup” like size, background, stroke and stoke weight. Then we learned how to use functions in "void draw” to draw any kind of shape including lines, square, rectangle, ellipse and circle.
After getting how basic processing works and being able to understand it we went to open processing a website where everyone can import their work in processing and it is open source so you can download the code and change it to make it your own, but you have to acknowledge who did it. From this site we had to chose about 5-10 ideas that we like and might want to use for our 90349 coding standard. At the same time we were changing some codes that Terry gave use and learned how to document any change in the code on tumblr (blog website) because we needed to display process in order to pass the standard.
About half way through term 2, we have learned how to use the mouse to change an image. For example you had an image on processing and by moving the mouse across the screen it would change colour. This is when I decided to include a mouse or key board function into my final code but I still didn't know what to do. At the same time we were still working on 90342(another standard) about half the time and only spend about 2 hours on processing each week.
What I had finished before the end of term2 was a piece of code using mouse pressed and mouse dragged to draw ellipse all over the screen. What it does is when you move the mouse it draws ellipses along points and at other points if you press the right or left mouse key. After I used a reset function, it reset the screen when “r” was pressed on the keyboard. The last thing I incorporated is the function fill random to get random colours of ellipse when moving or pressing the mouse buttons.
Term 3 was the full coding term where 90349 would be our priority. After playing a bit with the mouse functions in term2 I went back to open processing and found an interesting application called monorail uploaded by Alejandro Bustamante-Martinez. it use a cart that move with the keyboard and you have to get to the other side without touching any wall, then a new maps appear and you do it again. This gave me the idea of doing a cart that move along a road and you have to follow the road to a new road with a different environment. (Example going from a city road to a farm road) After considering it I found that there wouldn't be a point and it was too close from the monorail application so I didn't carry on with this idea and started thinking about a new one.
After thinking about it I chose to keep the cart part and take out the background, first thing that happen when I started moving it was leaving a white trace behind and from that I thought I was going to do a drawing application where you can run over the screen and draw what you like. I started using key pressed to change the colour from white to black when any key on the keyboard is pressed. After having the basic functions of my application I started writing instructions and there is my first problem, when you started moving the cart the instruction where staying on the screen and I thought of using a key pressed that would change background colour to the same colour on what the instruction where written but it didn't work because the trace done by the cart was under this new background and you couldn't see it. I have tried to solve this problem all week by moving the background functions in other positions (eg. after the text) but it wasn't working so I gave my code to Terry and he looked at it over the week-end.
Monday Terry gave me back my code and told me it was an easy fix, the background code was just to be put inside the key pressed=control , you would pressed control to start and the new background would come up. After this I wanted to be able to change the colour of the line other than white and black. Terry gave me a piece of code that he did, it was a drawing application working with the mouse, the different colours where on the side and you would click on one to change the colour of what you are drawing. I wanted to include this in my coding but Terry thought I should have a break from the coding and start my front page design.
After this I run out of time so I decided to stop the idea of the colour and concentrate on changing the speed of the cart which should be easy and wouldn't take a lot of time, this would be the last change to my coding.
I was trying to get the speed to change using a new void key pressed in another processing tab but apparently I couldn’t have two times the same void in a single processing file. I tried to put it with the other void in (drawsetup.pde) but was unsuccessful. I tried to find a way of making this working. If I found how to make the speed work I would have try and put different values by pressing Tab (or another key) more than once. (eg speed = 5,10,20,30 then back to 2 etc…)
It end up that it was harder then I thought and I asked Terry for help and he found a way to change the speed by ++ or -- instead of set values. It was less complicated and does the same thing.
It was my last update for the coding even if I wanted to improve it, Terry told me to stop and it was enough done so I stopped and started my front page design.
During this standard I have learned and improved a lot of new skills. Obviously the main skill I learned is coding in java using processing. Even if it looks hard at start it actually isn’t that bad if you are interested and ready to learn, it is like learning a new language. After having the basic of processing you still want to carry on learning because it is amazing what you can do with a couple of lines of code. During this standard I have improved my communication skills using tumblr to communicate my ideas and the work I have done during the process of creating my processing game. I have learned how to document any change done in processing to keep track of what I have done and locate problems quicker. It has been done by highlighting in yellow the new pieces of code, then take a screen shot of it and post it on my blog. The other important skill improved doing processing even if the programme had its own troubleshoot; was problem solving as daily job. This is because in coding one small mistake like forgetting a semi-colon will mess up everything.
Overall this standard was the most interesting for me because I liked the idea of fully controlling your computer using lines of code to do whatever I wanted to do. I also liked the creative part of it, being able to use computers to express ideas and actually make them.