MixedMorph for kids

Hi Yoshiki,


 [Squeakland] MixedMorph for kids
>  
>  Yoshiki Ohshima yoshiki at squeakland.org
>  Tue May 8 11:34:04 PDT 2007
>  
>  
>    Subbu,
>  
>  > My 6-year old's favorite object is the
"MixedMorph" in Squeak 3.9 because
>  of
>  > the way it handles like putty. She uses it to
create all kinds of shapes
>  and
>  > pictures. She misses it in Squeakland plugin
image.
>  >
>  > Will MixedMorph make it into the Plugin image?
>  
>    There was good discussion with Jerome about it,
but I still have
>  "mixed" feeling toward including that to the
Squeakland image (and the
>  OLPC image).  This is due to the amount of
modification it makes and I
>  have not figure out what kind of side-effects it
might have.

What test do you wish it to pass?

What might it do that would make it unacceptable?

It is large because it had a chance to develop over a
long period of time. I do not think it is too far off
of main stream for inclusion and it comes with big
benefits. (Subbu's daugther's smile for one).

I have a chicken and egg problem here in selling this
to you.  You won't have a feel for what it does until
you include it and you won't include it until you have
a feel for what it does.

This started when I set myself to overcoming the
limitations of the old curve morph and in particular
the one sharp bend that was always present. I fixed
several other bugs in polygons as I came across them.
When I had achieved that Edgar asked for a way to get
puzzle pieces and I created MixedCurveMorphs in
response to that. Because my programming style tends
to make my code easier to maintain and modify than the
original code I could make swift progress.

I still want to see what kids will do if they have the
expessive power these morphs deliver.  I recommend
them to you. Subbu recommends them to you. Subbu's
daughter reminds me of why I put in the self funded
time and effort.

It is in your hands.

> (Not
>  that it have a bug or something, but it is a big
commitment to change
>  all polygons.)
>  
>    For your 6-years old, CurveMorph with a bit more
control points
>  would do?
>
There is a fundamental difference between a smooth
closed curve and a smooth closed curve with endpoints.
The old CurveMorph used the same smoothing for and
open line as for a closed curve. The sharp bend is
where the two endpoints meet.

The mixed curves get their expressive power from using
a true closed curve smoothing.
Too enable backward compatiblity I left the option of
turning that off by controling a preference flag. And
I left CurvierMorphs do the smoother smoothing and
CurveMorphs do the old smoothing.
I tried to demonstrate in that way that the changes
were not too radical.
 
>    For older kids, the OLPC version has Etoys
scriptable polygons so
>  that they can actually write tile scripts to change
the shape of a
>  polygon.  One time I tried to merge them together,
but the effort
>  didn't go far enough.  That would be still nice to
have...
>
If you choose to give it another go I am available to
assist.

Yours in curiosity and service, --Jerome Peace


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Don't pick lemons.
See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos.
http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html 
_______________________________________________
Squeakland mailing list
[hidden email]
http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland

Jerome Peace wrote:
> What test do you wish it to pass?
>
> What might it do that would make it unacceptable?

A simple way to address the concerns is to make sure that MixedMorph
doesn't actually modify PolygonMorph but copies the methods it needs. In
time, PolygonMorph might even become obsolete but for now there is a
major risk due to the modifications to PolygonMorph since anyone who
wants to use MixedMorph is forced into adopting the other changes.

Cheers,
   - Andreas
_______________________________________________
Squeakland mailing list
[hidden email]
http://squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland