[plt-scheme] Re: animation projects, video-game and not

> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 1:01 PM, Arthur Nunes-Harwit  
> <anh at cs.rit.edu> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I see a lot of projects that are video games.  Such projects  
>> ultimately rely
>> input and output, or side effects (perhaps disguised via monads).  
>> The coding
>> style for much of HtDP is purely functional.  What is the pedagogical
>> impact?  Do the students notice?  (As a student, I didn't notice  
>> right away
>> that read was different from square.)  Is there any discussion of  
>> "special"
>> functions or objects?
>>
>> What is the impact of other languages such as Java where the  
>> assumption
>> [built into the language libraries] is that everything is done  
>> using side
>> effects?  To what extent is it still possible to take a mostly  
>> functional
>> approach?

Matthias, Robby, etc. have suggested some readings.  You might also  
take a look at (the January draft of) my textbook, which emphasizes  
world-based animation throughout.  No explicit mention of input;  
instead, students write event handlers for mouse, keyboard, and timer  
events (just as in Java GUI-based programs).  No explicit mention of  
output; instead, students write event handlers for redraw events  
(somewhat as in Java GUI-based programs; the main difference is that  
the event handler _returns_ an image rather than _modifying_ an  
image).  No explicit mention of state or side effects; this differs  
from the usual practice in Java-based GUI's, but the designers of the  
Java class libraries _could_ have done it this way.

In fact, I'm sure one could write a functional front end for much of  
the Java GUI libraries, giving it an API analogous to DrScheme's  
world or universe teachpacks.


Let's see... what non-video-game animations do I have?  The following  
are really easy examples, the sort that students in my "programming  
for non-majors" course would be doing before mid-semester.
* Write an animation of a parametric equation, e.g. x= 100+50cos(t/ 
10), y=100+30sin(t/10), which traces an ellipse; changing the  
constants allows you to do some fun and easy mathematical experiments.
* Another easy, early example is simply following the mouse with a  
specified image; this is what's happening inside your computer all  
the time with a visible cursor.
* Another easy, early example is a progress bar, as one sees all the  
time in real operating systems.
* There's an exercise to allow a user to "type" into a text field.  A  
later version adds support for delete, left and right arrow keys.
* A digital clock.  Later, an analogue clock.
* Slide shows.
* E-commerce: choose from a menu of items and see a picture of it.

I haven't done as much work on coming up with substantial projects,  
like the video-game examples others have posted; I need more of those  
in the book :-)



Stephen Bloch
sbloch at adelphi.edu