Where should I edit the Playfield INFO?

Hi Steve,

do you have time to join our audio chat today at 3 pm EST? Or when would you have time for a quick chat, audio or irc? Some of your questions have been discussed yesterday, others are on the agenda today.

I apologize for not explaining our writing rules and outline better. And with your questions you identified important issues! 

On Dec 8, 2009, at 3:47 AM, Steve Thomas wrote:

I started editing the Playfield here: http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/Etoys/TilesPlayfield
Then found another spot (which answered my questions on mouse x and y) here: http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/Etoys/Tiles


Which version should we keep?

I already copied your text into the objects chapter. There we will describe all the objects you can find in the supplies bin. 

Also Why is Playfield called a "Tile" wouldn't a better term be Object.

This is a misunderstanding, I should have said it more clearly at the beginning of the chapter. In Tiles we will describe the tiles of an object. So we do not call playfield a tile, but will describe the tiles, which are special for playfields, in the tiles chapter (where we will describe every tile within Etoys). 

We do have a list with every tile extracted from within Etoys, so we know we will not forget one. But I just broke it down into several chapters to enable simultaneous editing. It will be re-organised later. We will probably end up with a chapter called "tiles" (or something like that), in which a user can find a description for every tile, and we still have to decide on the order. For now, the idea is to organize it according to the appearance in Etoys, e.g. sub-chapters for viewer-categories and then one or more sub-chapters for special tiles for special objects (thats where the playfield tiles would appear.)

Thank you for sending your mails to the list!

Below is an excerpt on my chat with Bert and Scott regarding Etoys Terms:

<mrsteve> Can someone help me distinguish/define the following terms in an Etoys context . . .

<mrsteve> Object, Tile and Morph

<bertf> An object is what you create in Etoys by painting or from the supplies flap. or more generally, anything you can get a halo on and script - so everything you see in Etoys.  A tile is what you put in a script, usually commands., but  referneces and expressions are tiles too. Morph is not really used on the user level, it's an implementation detail.

<scottwal> "Morph" is any graphical object; it's an internal term which unfortunately has leaked out into some of the documentation.   Some morphs are "simple" (e.g. a SketchMorph really is simply a bitmap) but most are nested structures consisting of submorphs which themselves consist of further submorphs, etc.    Thus, for example, a "RecordingControlsMorph" consists of a total of 75 parts, each of them a Morph in its own right.

<scottwal> As bert wrote (btw what are you doing writing documentation at 3 am, bert?!) "morph" isn't really used (or at least *shouldn't* be used) in user documentation.

<mrsteve> Got it!

<mrsteve> Just to reguritate and test my understanding . . .

<mrsteve> Morph is an internal squeak/smalltalk term of art that should be put back in the closet and kept there (action Item, make sure its NOT in the documentation)

<bertf> scottwal: not really, just reading a bit more before going to sleep

<scottwal> bertf:  :-)

<mrsteve> So distinguish Player for me from Object

<scottwal> heh heh

<mrsteve> Also in the "collections" category for Playfield/Holder there are references to: "first element" and "player at cursor"

<mrsteve> Why not "first player" and "player at cursor"

<scottwal> good point ;-)

<mrsteve> okay so part of facilitating understanding is to define terms

<scottwal> One could argue that Player is also an internal term, from the standpoint of our users, but it does occur here and here in the UI such as "player at cursor"...

<mrsteve> Is there some Standard reference of terms?

<scottwal> :-(

<bertf> as Scott said, Player is another internal term. An Object is really a Player + a Morph. The morph being the visible thing and the player defining the Etoys behavior

<bertf> mrsteve: that's one reason we need a reference manual, to define our terms

<mrsteve> :)

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On Tuesday 08 December 2009 09:34:17 pm Steve Thomas wrote:
>       - *User Term* *(UT)*- common language term which describes the

>       functionality of an object/thing. This Term should use word(s)
> that can be
>       easily mapped to common experiences (and mental models of an 8
> year old. If
>       anyone has a reference to such terms and mental models that
> would be great

Here is my shot at 'kids' terms. They may or may not corresponding to
programmer's intentions ;-)

Object - a building block used to build larger "computers". Some kids call
this a "thingie".
Morph - a graphical object (i.e. has a visual which can be manipulated with a
mouse)
Halo - "remote control" for a Morph. Has buttons for manipulating a Morph
Player - A script agent for a Morph which manages scripts and variables on
behalf of its morph.
Tile  -  A strip containing an instruction to a Player.
Viewer - a drawer containing strips of instructions organized by categories
(trays?) and a panel containing additional buttons for manipulating a Morph
(e.g. grab it, rename it, reveal it etc.).
Scriptor - A control panel for starting, stopping, editing a script.
Name Tile - A Morph's name badge (orange halo button). Used in scripts to
refer to Morphs.

FWIW .. Subbu