[starlogo-users] Announcing StarLogo TNG Beta 1

[Eric Klopfer]

Coinciding well with the commemoration of 40 years of Logo in Wired  
and Slashdot today, we are proud to at long last announce the  
official release of StarLogo TNG Beta 1.

StarLogo TNG has undergone a major transformation from Preview 4 (or  
4.2) to our first real beta.  Much of the code has been entirely  
rewritten, changing what happens on the surface as well as  
underneath.  These changes have increased speed, usability, stability  
and extensibility, and will hopefully be the basis of TNG for quite  
some time.  While there are many new features, because this is such a  
major revision some features of Preview 4 have not yet been  
implemented.  If you must have those features you should stick with  
Preview 4, otherwise we highly recommend shifting to the new  
version.  We have made our best efforts to update projects and  
support backwards compatibility, but some projects that rely on  
features that haven’t yet been implemented one load.  New and more  
extensive documentation is coming (including new sample curriculum  
very shortly), but in the mean time we have provided a list of  
changes that can be used to apply the basics of Preview 4.2 to this  
version.

We’re very excited about this new version.  The look and feel, as  
well as the usability have received quite favorable reviews across  
the board.  We hope you’ll like it to.  Mac and Windows releases are  
now available, and the first official Linux version is days away.

Changes, additions and subtractions to TNG are listed below and also  
available on our website at http://education.mit.edu/starlogo-tng

Enjoy!

The StarLogo Team
------------------------------------------------

StarLogo TNG Gets a Facelift+ Major Changes from Preview 4.2 to Beta 1

---------------

Changes

The look and feel have changed substantially.  The “factory” from  
which commands are pulled remains similar in functionality but now  
has vertical tabs instead of buttons.

Part of the redesign was to move the breed drawers to a common  
palette with the commands.  So now all breed drawers that were  
formerly associated with pages can be found in the "My Blocks" button  
at the top left.

Navigation of the canvas has changed.  You can't click and drag on  
the canvas, but you can use scroll bars.  You can also used the  
redesigned (and expandable) mini-view in the upper right.

The runtime tab has moved to its own space below (or to the right of)  
Spaceland.  It should be visible all the time.  It is below Spaceland  
when Spaceland is in normal view and to the right when the windows is  
maximized.

The terrain editor has been integrated into Spaceland.  Hit the Edit  
Terrain button in Spaceland, click and drag over the space you’d like  
to edit, and use the onscreen tools to edit in real time.  Make sure  
you unclick edit terrain when you are done.

The icons for Spaceland navigation have changed.

Search has moved to the upper right.

Typeblocking is much more robust.  Just start typing commands on the  
canvas.  The keyboard may also be used to navigate the stacks of  
blocks with the arrow keys and delete particular blocks with the  
delete key (deleting a block deletes it and all of the blocks nested  
within it).

Keyboard modes are based on what window is active and what mode you  
are in.

The breed editor has changed its look but is basically the same in  
functionality.

Items can be deleted by dragging them to the trash or back to the  
palette on the left hand side.  You can also use the delete key.

You can no longer duplicate blocks by alt-dragging them.  But you can  
copy and paste them.  To copy a single block, select the block and  
hit command/ctrl-c.  To copy a stack of blocks, select the top of the  
stack (or as high in the stack as you’d like to copy) and hit command/ 
ctrl-a.  To paste hit command/ctrl-v.

---------------

Additions

Comments can be added anywhere by right-clicking (or control- 
clicking) on a block and choosing add comment.  Double-click on the  
sticky that appears to expand it and start editing.  The stickies can  
then be moved, resized and collapsed.

Smell-list (for now under Misc) has been added which returns a list  
of all of the agents (by who number) that satisfy the criteria  
specified.

Lists have been added and have preliminary functionality.  You can  
create lists, find the length of a list, add an element to a list,  
pull the first item from a list, or get a particular item from a  
list.  Lists in general have a double-notched connector of the same  
shape as the regular data type (i.e. a list of numbers is a double- 
notched angular connector, whereas a regular number is a single- 
notched angular connector)

Multiplayer is there and is VERY experimental (i.e. it will  
definitely crash but works well enough to experiment with).  To use  
this, one computer will take out a Network Listen block and type in a  
number for the port (try something in the 10000-20000 range).  The  
other computer will use a Network Connect block with that same port,  
and the IP address of the host.  First the host clicks on the Listen  
and then the client clicks on the connect.  Multiple clients can  
connect to the same host on different ports.  What this will do is  
connect the edges of multiple instances of Spaceland, such that when  
an agent walks off the edge of one Spaceland it enters another.   
Please send feedback on this feature, we’re working to improve its  
functionality.

---------------

Subtractions

Some commands were dropped temporarily as a part of re- 
implementation.  They will return in Beta 2. These include:
	Output in procedures

Zoom and collapse procedures are not implemented yet.  They will  
return in Beta 2.

Patch variables are not yet implemented.  These may return in Beta 2.

Tooltips (the mouseover information about commands) is not yet  
implemented.

---------------

Known Bugs and Workarounds

Infix blocks (like + and - that have blocks inside of them) don’t  
render properly when they have a lot of operations nested within  
them.  They still functional correctly so in general it works just to  
make the page wide enough to accommodate the large infix blocks.

Graph Blocks can use a lot of memory.  Use them conservatively.

Deleting a breed can leave around some stray blocks on the canvas.   
You need to delete them manually.