Squeak-dev December 1999

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146 participants
451 discussions

Re: [NEWBIE] Fonts/Sizes in Squeak
by Bob Arning 01 Dec '99

01 Dec '99

On Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:19:45 +0100 Udo Schneider <Udo.Schneider(a)homeaddress.de> wrote: >a newbie question: > >How do I create a Text with different Fonts/Sizes >in Squeak. I found classes for TextColor, TextKern etc. >but nothing for TextSize or TextFont. > >Did I miss something? The classes you are looking for are TextStyle (which is essentially a font family) and StrikeFont (which represents one size of a font and, possibly, emphasized variants of that size). To change font and size through the UI, use cmd-k and cmd-shift-K. To create the Text programmatically, check out users of TextFontReference, TextFontChange and TextStyle for examples. Cheers, Bob

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Re: The science of Tetris
by Henrik Gedenryd 01 Dec '99

01 Dec '99

on 99-12-01 09.09, Dan Ingalls at Dan.Ingalls(a)disney.com wrote: > It looks like it might be hard to delete just the bottom row if each block is > a morph. I would handle this by having the game board extend below the bottom > line and delete blocks as they pass completely below the bottom line. > > One could stick with the current model (a morph per square) and still greatly > improve efficiency by representing the current block as a collection of > 1-square morphs. Then for moveLeft or moveDown, you just tell each component > square to move left or down, and morphic will take care of repainting just the > cells that change as a result. I would suggest composing each 4-square tile as a morph (itself 'invisible') of 4 square submorphs. When reaching the bottom, you transfer these 4 from the tile to become submorphs of the stack on the bottom instead, and get rid of the tile morph. Then you'd represent the game board Model as a bitmap with 1 bit per square, and use BitBlt to delete rows from the Model pile when they are filled, and for collision detection too. OK, this suggestion was maybe only 50% serious, but it's an intriguing concept and probably a very good way to go if you know BitBlt well enough. I hope y'all know that there have been scientific studies of Tetris (and the one I know of is *very* interesting. I've made reference to it myself). I'd recommend this one for the interested: http://cogsci.ucsd.edu/~maglio/some.ps Henrik < = > .

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Re: Tetris
by Michael Donegan 01 Dec '99

01 Dec '99

In my lost version of Tetris, I eliminated a lot of the redrawing. It was actually pretty easy. And it did help in that it took longer to get sluggish, but it still got sluggish. It just took longer. It is a fun problem, all right. I think that more complicated algorithmic changes are required. I was just looking for a magic bullet so that I wouldn't do some big overhaul to no avail. The changes I had made up to this point not only made it faster, but also a lot easier to understand. I'll give it another shot. mkd >Michael Donegan <invader(a)zilker.net> wrote... >>But, before going back and doing it again, I was wondering if anyone would >>like to do a tutorial on how to go about finding the hot spots in something >>like this. >> >>Has anyone else looked at this problem? > >Not until 5 minutes ago. MessageTally is one tool I use a lot (as Scott >suggests). > >Another diagnostic technique is to turn on viewing of damage rectangles. >Browse to PasteUpMorph>>displayWorld, and change the occurrence of 'false >ifTrue:' to 'true ifTrue:'. Suddenly your screen will start flashing. >What is happening is that prior to repainting any part of the screen, >morphic paints it black. This lets you see how much work morphic is doing. > >My recent tweak to AlignmentMorphs was the result of my discovery in >exactly this manner that entire alignment structures were being repainted >when only smallparts of them were really changing size. > >Anyhow, applying this to Tetris, you see that the entire game board is >being redrawn every time any block moves. Looking for the reason, you'll >soon discover that the entire board is being *created anew* (paint) every >time a block moves. This was a surprise to me -- I expected each block to >be a morph. If the blocks were morphs, then they could be moved by one >line of code, and they would only cause that small rectangle to get >redrawn (and of course no removal or addition of morphs would take place. > >It looks like it might be hard to delete just the bottom row if each block >is a morph. I would handle this by having the game board extend below the >bottom line and delete blocks as they pass completely below the bottom >line. > >One could stick with the current model (a morph per square) and still >greatly improve efficiency by representing the current block as a >collection of 1-square morphs. Then for moveLeft or moveDown, you just >tell each component square to move left or down, and morphic will take >care of repainting just the cells that change as a result. > >It's a fun problem. >Isn't it nice that Aibek took the trouble to build it? >Isn't it great to have it in Squeak where we can not only play it, but >also play with it? > >It would be fun to see how small it could be in morphic Squeak, and >compare it with the Java from which it was ported. > > - D

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[ENH] Scamper background
by Bolot Kerimbaev 01 Dec '99

01 Dec '99

Adds support for background color and background image to Scamper. This is an ALPHA version, it works, but I've tested it only for 15 minutes. Possible to-do: download the background image through DownloadingImageMorph. Links: http://fce.cc.gatech.edu/~bolot/swiki.php3?folder=squeak/scamper http://fce.cc.gatech.edu/~bolot/squeak/scamper/Scamper-Background.3.cs

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Tetris
by Michael Donegan 01 Dec '99

01 Dec '99

I got interested in the Tetris game a few weeks ago and spent a lot of time cleaning it up and trying to solve the problem that its performance degrades as the number of blocks increases. My "optimization" didn't help all that much, so now I'm kinda interested in how one goes about profiling and tweaking Morphic code. I'm thinking that it is a Morphic problem. But I don't have much of a clue. Also, unfortunately, the brand new hard disk on my iBook croaked and Apple graciously replaced it along with all my bits so I don't have the fine cleaned-up version that I had before. But, before going back and doing it again, I was wondering if anyone would like to do a tutorial on how to go about finding the hot spots in something like this. Has anyone else looked at this problem? mkd

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[ENH][UPDATE] Time functions
by David T. Lewis 01 Dec '99

01 Dec '99

--tKW2IUtsqtDRztdT Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii This replaces the change set I posted a couple of days ago. Class PointInTime knows how to convert to and from Smalltalk time, and TimeZone knows how to obtain the offset between UTC and local time. Together, they provide a framework for mapping the local time in Smalltalk (Time and Date) to a location-independent PointInTime representation. Class PointInTime now uses 01-Jan-1970 as the origin on its timeline. PointInTimeNow represents the current time on the absolute timeline. Its single instance is updated by a process loop, but it is intended to be hooked into the VM so as to be updated by the system clock. Class WallClock demonstrates the mapping of Date and Time to PointInTimeNow. Class TimePlugin contains the pluggable primitives. There is not yet any connection to a timezone database, but TimeZone can query the operating system to learn about the local timezone. Dave --tKW2IUtsqtDRztdT Content-Type: text/plain; name="Time.30Nov1057pm.cs" ; x-mac-type="54455854" ; x-mac-creator="522A6368" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Time.30Nov1057pm.cs" Content-Transfer-Encoding: imap_stub 0,1858,2,35001,1024, --tKW2IUtsqtDRztdT--

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RE: Intervals
by Jarvis, Robert P. 01 Dec '99

01 Dec '99

> -----Original Message----- > From: Peter Crowther [SMTP:Peter.Crowther@IT-IQ.com] > Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 9:25 AM > To: 'squeak(a)cs.uiuc.edu' > Subject: RE: Intervals > > You're still assuming steps at, or of the order of, 1. > <sigh> Guilty as charged. I also confess to having missed an edge condition. Dare I hope for a velvet rope with which to be hung, m'lud? :-) 'From Squeak2.6 of 11 October 1999 [latest update: #1559] on 30 November 1999 at 11:07:18 am'! !Interval methodsFor: 'accessing' stamp: 'rpj 11/30/1999 11:04'! includes: aNumber "Determine if aNumber is an element of this interval." ^(self rangeIncludes: aNumber) and: [ self valuesInclude: aNumber ]! ! !Interval methodsFor: 'private' stamp: 'rpj 11/30/1999 11:01'! rangeIncludes: aNumber "Private" ^aNumber between: (self first min: self last) and: (self first max: self last)! ! !Interval methodsFor: 'private' stamp: 'rpj 11/30/1999 11:04'! valuesInclude: aNumber "Private - answer whether or not aNumber is one of the enumerated values in this interval." ^(aNumber - self first \\ step = 0) or: [ ((aNumber - self first \\ step - step) abs < (step * 1e-10) abs) or: [ (aNumber - self first \\ step) abs < (step * 1e-10) abs ] ]! ! I know the addition of a fudge factor may cause problems in some cases, but it does (help) Squeak support Dan's Principle of Least Astonishment. To me it's quite amazing that Squeak says (1.0 to: 20.0 by: 0.2) includes: 1.2 ==> false while it's (a bit) less amazing for it to say (1.0 to: 20.0 by: 0.2) includes: 19.999999999999 ==> true Of course, all this mucking about with Floats is going to come back to haunt us at some later date. Floats, as I think I've mentioned in the past, are evil... Bob Jarvis Compuware @ Timken

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[Enh] Generated -> Sampled Sounds
by Mark Guzdial 01 Dec '99

01 Dec '99

--============_-1268105171==_============ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Attached is a change set that implements AbstractSound>>asSampledSound. This enables you to convert a synthesized sound (e.g., PluckedSound hiMajorScale) into a sampled sound, which can then be saved out as AIFF, WAV, whatever. Useful for dynamically generating a sound for a Web page. See the preamble for an example. Side story: I remember asking about this over a year ago, and Andreas Raab sent me some leads on how to build it, but I couldn't figure it out then. Today, it took less than 10 lines of code. The intervening time was spent learning WHICH 10 lines of code to write...:-) Mark --============_-1268105171==_============ Content-Type: text/plain; name="generated-sampled.1.cs" ; x-mac-type="65417070" ; x-mac-creator="43534F6D" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="generated-sampled.1.cs" Content-Transfer-Encoding: imap_stub 0,1856,2.2,1242,0, --============_-1268105171==_============ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" -------------------------- Mark Guzdial : Georgia Tech : College of Computing : Atlanta, GA 30332-0280 (404) 894-5618 : Fax (404) 894-0673 : guzdial(a)cc.gatech.edu http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/people/Faculty/Mark.Guzdial.html --============_-1268105171==_============--

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TCP Sockets on Macs?
by Stephen Travis Pope 01 Dec '99

01 Dec '99

Hello all, I know there was this long thread about the correctness of the socket prims, but I didn't follow it closely enough. Are TCP sockets known to work on Macs? When I inspect the result of "Socket newTCP," I get a broken (destroyed) result. Should this work? (I also tried it on the stock Mac VM with the same result.) ....any assistance appreciated... -- stp Stephen Travis Pope -- http://www.create.ucsb.edu/~stp stp(a)expertcity.com -- stp9(a)cornell.edu

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RE: Primitive: returning a String
by Andrew C. Greenberg 01 Dec '99

01 Dec '99

>Alternatively, you could do something like the following in your primitive: > >---- >interpreterProxy > instantiateClass: (interpreterProxy classString) > indexableSize: <the size you need>. >--- > >This way, you could make whatever call you need to make, then allocate a >String for the correct size, and copy the data into that string. Probably >very little difference in performance either way (the copy might be a tad >faster if done in C). Right. However, if it is done in the primitive, all other references to oops or parts of oops stored in local variables must be presumed invalid. This is because #instantiateClass:indexableSize: can cause a garbageCollection. Accordingly, depending upon whethe you need actual access to other oops (as opposed to their values), you may need to go back to the stack to re-access parameters.

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