As you may imagine, a lot of time and effort went into this application, especially in the parsing routines used to manipulate the program text box. Please support the concept of Shareware development (and get me off my 286!) by registering this product now.
I am requesting a $10 registration fee. For that you will receive a free copy of Version 2.0 of Alex's Rocket Programmer. This will include a spiffier help facility, an icon or picture of a rocket at the head of each line, some fancy cursor manipulation, some new programming do-dads such as loop processing and a turning meter, "true" direction control based on the direction that the rocket is pointing, a color-fill option, a new shapes menu, more color options, and, at the request of my chief designer Alex, I may also experiment with adding sound to go with the rocket icon. Alex is never short on ideas!
This update will be made available in the spring of 1993 but only to those registered. In addition, if you act now (or anytime for that matter) you will receive free copies of two other children's games now being developed:
Einstein on the Bench (a Math game)
The Doors of Perception (a Perceptual tricks demo)
These will be available in March 1993.
Please Register now.
Registration information:
Registration Fee $10
Stan Swigoda - VBKids
217 Rhoads Av
Haddonfield, NJ. 08033
Please include any comments, complaints or suggestions. You may also reach me at Compuserve ID - 70632, 521.
Quick Tour
To get a quick and dirty appreciation for the way Alex's Rocket Programmer works, simply draw a square by clicking the following buttons:
Forward
Down
Backward
Up
Notice the commands have been saved in the Program Box on the right with the default Distance (50) and Color (Blue) options. Now, clear the Picture by clicking the Clear button and run the "program" you just wrote by clicking the Run Program button. Viola!
Now that you have a program you can embellish it be lengthing lines, changing colors or chaning commands. You can do this in a number of ways:
1 - You can click on new commands - these will be added to the bottom of the "program".
2 - You can directly edit the program by highlighing and changing the commands in the box (don't worry about spacing or capitalization - the only rule is that a comma separate each command).
3 - Or you can type a command in the Single Line Entry text box above the program box and execute it by pressing Enter. This also places the command at the bottom of your program.
Program entries can be inserted, deleted or changed in any way simply by highlighting and typing. You can also save a program or open an old program using the File menu options - Save Command File and Open Command File.
Quick Reference
Commands
Command Line structure:
Draw Lines:
Direction Button, Distance, Color
These must be seperated by a comma.
Place Points:
XY, X point, Y point
These must also be seperated by a comma.
The X point and Y point represent point on the picture grid and are in the range from 100 to 200.
Direction Commands
S - Star
F - Forward
B - Backward
U - Up
DUR - Diagonal Up Right
DUL - Diagonal Up Left
DDR - Diagonal Down Right
DDL - Diagonal Down Left
XY - Place point from which next line will start
Distance:
Option buttons:
10
20
30
40
50
Any number up to 99 can be used.
Note: lines will not overshoot the edge of the picture frame. Rather distances will be shortened if they would result in overshooting.
Color:
Options buttons:
Blue
Green
Red
Black
White.
These may also be typed into any program command. Case is not important but this must be the last parameter in a command.
Note: the XY command and the Color Fill Button described below use the color of the last line drawn.
Control Buttons:
Draw a Star - draws a star from the current point using the current distance and color
options.
Forward - draws a line in the forward direction (left to right)
Backward - draws a line in the backward direction (right to left)
Down - draws a line in the downward direction (top to bottom)
Up - draws a line inthe upward direction (bottom to top)
Diagonal Up Right - draws a diagonal line up and to the right (ie lower Left to upper Right)
Diagonal Down Right - draws a diagonal line down and to the right (ie upper Left to lower Right)
Diagonal Up Left - draws a diagonal line up and to the left (ie lower right to upper left)
Diagonal Down Left - draws a diagonal line down and to the left(ie upper right to lower left)
Clear - clears current images from picture box (but leaves Program intact)
Point Placement - click mouse anywhere within the picture box. This will place a point within the box which will become the starting point of the next line drawn. It will also be written to the program box as an XY command.
Scribble - a toggle switch which turns the capability to perform freeform scribbling on or off.
On - allows freeform scribbling within the picture box whenever the mouse button is pressed. These movements are not captured in the program however.
Off - Turns freeform scribbling off aloowing only point placement within the picture box using the mouse. Point Placement is captured in the program as described above.
Color Fill - fills the picture box with the color option selected. Any picture in the box will be covered (this is opaque paint!), however the program will remain. Color Fill commands are not written to the program box.
Program Box Editing - The program box can be edited as if it were a text editor. Lines can be highlighted and deleted or copied. New lines can be inserted and existing lines can be modified. The only real restrictions are that all parameters are separated by a comma and that all commands begin in a new line.
Program Single Line Entry - use the single line entry box to enter and test individual commands. This is a useful way to test the impact of command sequences you've created. After you enter a command, you may execute just the line in the box by pressing enter. The line will execute and be added to the bottom of your program.
Quit - unloads the form and quits the application
Clear - Clears the picture box. This will not affect the program. The clear command is not written to the program box.
Menu Commands
File Open - An input box will appear requesting the name of a file to open. Enter the full path and file name of any text file where you have either saved a previous program or written a new program from a freeform text editor such as Notepad.
File Save - An input box will appear requesting the name of the file to save. Enter the full path and filename. The contents of the program box will be written to the file listed. The program will remain in the program box.
Help - Allows viewing this file from a number of different locations - Quick Tour, Commands, Registration and the About information.
Distance - the scale of the picture box goes from 100 to 200. Therefore no distance can be greater than 99. Options exist for distances of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50. You may edit any command to change the distance up to a maximum of 99.
An elaborate min/max algorithm is employed whenever a line is drawn to determine if it will reach the end of the picture frame before the full distance is used. If it does then the line stops at the edge of the frame (positions 101 or 199).
For you techies in the audience - the real challenge here was determining whether an X or Y overflow was reached when drawing diagonal lines then reseting the points.
Color - Five colors are available - Blue, Green, Red, Black and White. They can be selected through the option buttons provided or by entering them into program commands. (Case is not important).
Slope - this is the traditional "m" slope where 1 = a 45 degree line, anything greater than 1 is steeper and anything less is shallower. Some neat effects can be made with diagonal lines. This does not affect the diagonal lines in the Star shape. Slope cannot be used in program commands, however, the slope value currently in effect will govern all diagonal lines written when a program runs.
About Alex's Rocket Programmer
"Dad, can you draw a star for me on the computer?". My seven year old son Alex asked this question a month ago and I proceeded to demonstrate how easy this was to do in Visual Basic. Alex was satisfied with the image and line animation, but he's too savvy about Windows - he didn't want to draw it using LINE and PSET commands - no, why couldn't I just give him a button! So I drew the star and added a control button titled "Draw a Star" and the ideas started rolling in Alex's head.
First, he wanted color control, then size control, then placement control, then vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, when he made a mistake he wanted to clear the picture, finally, dissatisfied with having his creation limited by the existing buttons, he wanted to control the program himself. This was the real breakthrough into creative programming. We designed the program box, run program command button and open/save file options quickly after that. These features were undoubtedly the most difficult programming chore for they involved translating complex VB commands and parameters into simple, easy to use commands, then developing a parsing/playback routine to execute the program.
Whew! - that kid can sure keep a programmer busy! He's a good designer though because he has the vision of a child - the vision that shouts "anything's possible"! That is the spirit with which Alex's Rocket Programmer was created and the spirit which drives VBKids.
We hope you enjoy the product and would like to hear from you. But visions don't grow on trees, they must be fed and nurtured, so please don't forget to register. Thank you for you interest and support.!
About VBKids - Very Bright Kids
VBKids is dedicated to the development of computer activities for children which are first and foremost fun (otherwise how are you going to get their attention!) and secondly educational.
I developed Alex's Programmer on a 286 (yes, there are still a few around!) using Visual Basic Version 1.0. My goal was to give my own children an environment in which they could easily manipulate shapes at the push of a button and then see their actions in simple code statements which they could then directly manipulate. I hoped that this would foster further playing around with these rudimentary commands and stimulate the creative juices which are inherent in programming.
Registration Information (for those of you who missed it the first time!):
