Re: LOGO-L> dynamic programming projects and speed of MicroWorlds

[George Mills <mills@softronix.com>]

MSWLogo has "Sliders and Buttons" (within separate windows) it also has
many other standard controls. I attached 2 examples.

LISTBOX, COMBOBOX, SCROLLBAR, BUTTON, STATIC, GROUPBOX, CHECKBOX,
RADIOBUTTON

I may or may not allow them within the graphics window in the future.

MSWLogo does "shapes" (MSWLogo calls them bitmaps [no it does not come
with a library of bitmaps you can find bitmaps or create your own pretty
easy]).

You can Import, Export, Stretch, Cut, Paste, Copy, or Animate your
bitmaps.
You can also effect how bitmaps are processed, store up 1024 of them
in memory and transfer them from one buffer to another to build up
complex images quickly for purposes of animation or map them to the
turtles.

Once you get true animation running in MSWLogo you will learn the inner
workings of how most applications do it (fast and smooth).

Since I follow the Windows API Model I'm confident I won't create a
bottleneck in MSWLogo's abilities since I try to allow access to the
same system functions any "Windows" application is written with
(including
MicroWorlds or MSWLogo). What you learn from MSWLogo can be easily
applied to other "Windows" languages.

Since Brian did a great job allowing for extending the library if
something is
missing or you want to make it conceptually easier or change the
behavior
of existing functions you can extend it to your needs. The critical
functions
are all there. I also tap into Brian's incredibly rich and powerful
parser
(all be it a bit slow :-)).

You could build abstract layers on the 3D, Networking, MIDI, MouseDriven
Controls,
Animation etc. I try to limit (because I am a limited resource) how far
and
wide I go in each area. I supply the minimal tools needed to do a lot of
different things.

For example with the MOUSEON command you can basically do anything and
take
action based on any mouse action (on the graphics screen). You can
create your
own buttons or create a bitmap with "hot spots" you click on (like
HTML).
But it's not handed to you on a silver platter. You have to learn
"Event Driven" programming and how to turn clicks of a mouse into a
button
being pushed. Which is easy, important and fun to learn.

Unless you truly understand what MSWLogo has to offer I don't think it's
fair to speak of what MSWLogo is missing. Checkout Jim's new book, but I
suspect it would take him another 3 editions to cover everything.

There is not much you can't do in MSWLogo, it's all a matter of how
fast it can do it and how much you (or a student) can learn from the
process of getting it to do it.

Sorry to ramble on so long.

Jeff wrote:
> 
> George
> ...rather than talk of 'winners', I'm interested in your rationale as a
> designer; aside from the pragmatics of making your Logo congruent with
> its OS, what are your reasons for giving a lower priority to Buttons,
> Sliders, Shapes, DrawTools and similar features?
> 
> Jeff Richardson

-- 
===============================================================
George Mills (mills@softronix.com)
http://www.softronix.com/
The www page contains some very powerful educational software.
Our single most important investment is our kids.