Introducing StarLogo TNG Beta 1

 
 

StarLogo TNG has undergone a major transformation from Preview 4 (or 4.2) to the 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, 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.


 

StarLogo TNG Gets a Facelift+

Major Changes from Preview 4.2 to Beta 1

Changes


  1. Bullet  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.

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  4. Bullet 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.

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  7. Bullet 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.

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  10. Bullet 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.

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  13. Bullet 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.

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  16. Bullet The icons for Spaceland navigation have changed.

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  19. Bullet Search has moved to the upper right.

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  22. Bullet 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).

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


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

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  30. Bullet 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. 


  32. Bullet 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.




  36. Additions


  38. Bullet 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.

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  41. Bullet 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.

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  44. Bullet 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)

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  47. Bullet 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.

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  52. Subtractions


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

  55. Bullet Output in procedures


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


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


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




  65. Known Bugs and Workarounds


  67. Bullet  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. 


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


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