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New commands:
Arc draws arcs and circles.
SetTypeSize sets the size of type drawn with GraphicsType.
StrokePath allows you to stroke text, i.e., outline text.
TextBox returns a rectangle describing the 'size' of the text.
New commands:
Commands to open, close, read, write, files.
Commands to set current directory, list current directory.
New commands Date and Time.
Quicktime movies can be created by taking a sequence of snapshots of the graphics window.
Many tutorials have been added to the help menu.
You can look up a command in help by command-double-clicking on it in the main text window.
The text view in the Procedures window now demonstrates a certain amount of syntax highlighting - brackets, numbers, and operators are in various colours. This behaviour can be turned off in the preferences dialogue.
Procedures can be dragged from the Procedures window of one document and dropped into the Procedures window of another. Procedures within one procedures window can be reordered by dragging.
Right-clicking in the procedures table-view brings up a context-sensitive edit menu (cut, paste, etc).
A preferences window has been added. The turtle attributes (transparency, size, etc.) have been moved into this window and so are now global across documents.
The preferences window also includes attributes for editing in the Procedures window. By default, editing in the procedures window is in a fixed-pitch font and has syntax highlighting. These can be changed.
Fixed a crash when using Fillin.
Improved accuracy of SVG paths. Previously was using integers rather than floats. Inaccuracy was obvious under high magnification.
Alan Smith
Norwich, UK
June 2003
A bug where procedures called recursively were not getting called properly has been fixed.
If you hold down the Alt key over the graphics window, it changes to a magnifying glass. Click to double the magnification of the window, shift-click to demagnify. You can also drag a rectangle to define the region to be magnified, or double-click to set the magnification back to 100%.
The info window, if displayed, shows the state of the turtle, colours chosen, and mouse pointer position. You can click on the foreground and background colours to change them using the colour picker.
You can paint with transparent colours. SetRGB can take as input a four-member list as well as a three-member list. The fourth member, if present, is opacity - 1.0 means completely opaque, 0.0 means completely transparent.
If the trace window is displayed, each function and procedure call is written to the window. This can produce a lot of output, so don't use it unless you need to debug a procedure.
If the trace window is displayed, updating of the graphics window sticks until you click on it.
Occasional updating problems with the info window.
Please send any bug reports to: alan@alancsmith.co.uk
A number of functions/primitives which did not work at all or did the wrong thing have been fixed.
The Graphicstype function now takes a note of the turtle heading, and will display text at the appropriate angle. Font characteristics for Graphicstype can now be set using the normal font menu. The graphics window needs to be fromtmost for this to take effect.
A new function, Fillpath, has been introduced. This addresses some of the drawbacks of the other fill methods. It fills the path (polygon) made by the turtle since the last pen down. This fill is a lot quicker and looks a lot better than the other fill methods.
As well as bitmap graphics (TIFFs), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs) can be exported. These are an emerging web standard, but you need a plug-in to view them as the current browsers can't read them. The importance of them is that,unlike bitmaps, they can be magnified without loss of quality. For a simple picture, they will take up less space than a bitmap, but for a very complex path, they will take up a lot more space. Note that pixel-type operations such as fill, fillin and dot do not get exported. Forward, back and fillpath do. For more information on SVGs, see SVG Links and SVG Books.
The Export text menu command will save all of the main text window, together with all procedure text, in a plain text file.
You can now print the currently selected text in the main window rather than the whole document using the Print Selection menu item.
You can print procedures - either the whole lot, or selected ones.
I've completely changed the way this works - hopefully it's a change for the better. The procedure window now uses a table view rather then a pop-up menu to select the procedure. This allows you to select multiple procedures for, say, deleting or printing. Undo/redo should work for most actions.
Windows for saved documents, when reopened, should open in the last saved position.
Alan Smith
Norwich, UK
January 2002