[starlogo-users] More complete explanation for the various parts of canvas

[StarLogo Bugtracker]

Hi Herb,

Yes, documentation is coming soon.

The pages are more for organization than anything else at this time.  While
in the future we will add warnings if a Dog tries to access a variable
defined on the Cat page, for example, those checks aren't in place yet and
the variables work for all breeds.  In other words, while we provide the
pages in an effort to provide an object-oriented framework, there is nothing
forcing users to adhere to that.

The Setup and Runtime pages are simply for organization; it is the blocks
themselves that determine whether or not a button will be generated in the
Spaceland window.  However, we tend to put setup blocks on the Setup page,
and Forever, Run (timed), and Run Once blocks on the Runtime page.

The Collisions page does have special meaning for the experimental
networking blocks (collision blocks on this page are shared with remote
computers, allowing for interaction between breeds from different
computers), but those will be removed in Beta 2 and replaced with a new
experimental design.

The Patches page used to have a special meaning in that variables defined
here were stored in each patch rather than in the agents.  However, the
design was incomplete and we've removed support for patch variables until
the design is finalized.  Some old projects have the page, but hopefully
none of them actually use the page.  If they do, those projects most likely
do not work anymore.

Thanks for the question, and also for the nudge about documentation!  We
will be working on all of these issues in the near future.  Let me know if
there's anything else I can help with.

Thanks,
--Daniel (for the SLTNG team)

On Dec 3, 2007 8:50 AM, Herb Schilling <hschilling at nasa.gov> wrote:

> Hi,
>  We are going to be using StarLogo TNG for some after-hour educational
> outreach activities. I really like it but I wish there were more complete
> documentation.
>
>  I have played around with StarLogo TNG for a couple of days so I have
> some idea of what the various parts of the canvas are for but is there some
> documentation which explains what the Turtles ( or other agents ), Setup,
> Runtime, Globals, Patches, Collisions sections are for? How are these
> sections created ? I see some sample projects have a Collisions section but
> no Patches section and vice versa. It's not always obvious where you should
> put things. For example, where should the graph blocks go? I can see it
> being in the runtime or one of the agent sections.
>
>  Does it only make sense to put a Setup block in the Setup section? What
> about the Runtime section? It seems like things you put in those two also
> show up as a button in the pane below SpaceLand. I see I can put Setup
> blocks in the Runtime section and things seem to work just like as if I put
> it in the Setup section. Are these sections just there for logical grouping
> of things?
>
>  Thanks!
>
>
> -----------------------
> Herb Schilling
> hschilling at nasa.gov
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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