Pictures for shape and text alignment

Step 1

Type in the following code and run it:

cleari()
setBackground(white)
def square(len: Int, color: Color) {
    setFillColor(color)
    setPenColor(color)
    repeat(4) {
        forward(len)
        right(90)
    }
}

val pic1 = Picture {
    square(100, cm.blue)
}

val pic2 = Picture {
    square(50, cm.lightBlue)
}

val pic3 = Picture {
    setPenFontSize(25)
    setPenColor(cm.black)
    write("Picture Power!")
}

val pic12 = picStackCentered(pic1, pic2)

val pic123 = picColCentered(pic3, Picture.vgap(10), pic12)

drawCentered(pic123)

Q1a What do you think the picStackCentered function does?

Q1b What do you think the picColCentered function does?

Q1c What do you think the Picture.vgap function does?

Q1d What does the above program do? How does it do it?

Explanation

The basic idea with pictures is simple:

• You put a turtle drawing inside a picture.
• Now you can do many things with this picture drawing:
  • You can draw it (of course).
  • You can align it with other pictures.
  • You can translate, scale, or rotate it.
  • You can change its transparency.
  • You can apply effects to it.
  • You can animate it.
  • You can detect collisions with other pictures

In this activity, we are only interested in the drawing and the alignment part.

Function descriptions:

• picStackCentered(pic1, pic2, ...) - creates a new picture that stacks pic1, pic2, ... one over the other, with pic1 underneath, pic2 over it, and so on.
• picColCentered(pic1, pic2, ...) - creates a new picture that puts pic1, pic2, ... in a column from bottom to top, with pic1 at the bottom, pic2 next, and so on.
• Picture.vgap(height) - Creates an invisible picture with the given height. This can be used during picture layout - to provide vertical spacing.

Step 2

Type in the following code and run it:

cleari()
setBackground(white)
def square(len: Int, color: Color) {
    setFillColor(color)
    setPenColor(color)
    repeat(4) {
        forward(len)
        right(90)
    }
}

val pic1 = Picture {
    square(100, cm.blue)
}

val pic2 = Picture {
    square(50, cm.lightBlue)
}

val pic3 = Picture {
    setPenFontSize(25)
    setPenColor(cm.black)
    write("Picture Power!")
}

val pic12 = picStackCentered(pic1, pic2)

val pic123 = picRowCentered(pic12, Picture.hgap(10), pic3)

drawCentered(pic123)

Q2a What do you think the picRowCentered function does?

Q2b What do you think the Picture.hgap function does?

Q2c What does the above program do? How does it do it?

Explanation

Function descriptions:

• picRowCentered(pic1, pic2, ...) - creates a new picture that puts pic1, pic2, ... in a row from left to right, with pic1 at the extreme left, pic2 next, and so on.
• Picture.hgap(width) - Creates an invisible picture with the given width. This can be used during picture layout - to provide horizontal spacing.

Step 3

Type in the following code and run it:

cleari()
setBackground(black)
val pic1 = Picture {
    setPenColor(cm.coral)
    setPenThickness(6)
    setFillColor(cm.cornSilk)
    repeat(6) {
        forward(100)
        right(60)
    }
}

// make the second picture and give it the name pic2
val pic2 = Picture {
    setPenColor(cm.brown)
    setPenThickness(4)
    right(360, 50)
}

// make a text picture and give it the name pic3
val pic3 = Picture {
    setPenFontSize(25)
    setPenColor(cm.lightSalmon)
    write("Picture Power!")
}

// stack pic1 and pic2 on top of each other and center them
val pic12 = picStackCentered(pic1, pic2)

// put pic3, the gap, and the stacked picture in a vertical centered colum
val pic123 = picColCentered(pic3, Picture.vgap(10), pic12)

// draw the column of pictures
drawCentered(pic123)

Q3a What does the above program do? How does it do it?

Exercise

Use the above ideas to make a design.