Orbiting dots

[Lapsus Antepedis]

This is a small program that I created in about 10 minutes, It was inspired by one of the screensavers included with some common linux distros...
I am aware of it's problems with flickering, but I do not really want to rewrite the code again...

Turing:

const numofballs : int := 15 var window : int :=     Window.Open ("graphics:500;500, nocursor, title:Orbit") process dot (startx, starty, orbx, orby, clr, del, siz : int, power : real)     var x, y : int     x := startx     y := starty     var xspeed, yspeed : real := 0     loop         drawoval (maxx div 2, maxy div 2, 2, 2, 7)         drawfilloval (x, y, siz, siz, 0)         x += round (xspeed)         y += round (yspeed)         drawfilloval (x, y, siz, siz, clr)         if x > orbx then             xspeed -= power         elsif x < orbx then             xspeed += power         end if         if y > orby then             yspeed -= power         elsif y < orby then             yspeed += power         end if         delay (del)     end loop end dot for i : 1 .. numofballs     fork dot (Rand.Int (0, maxx), Rand.Int (0, maxy), maxx div 2, maxy div         2, Rand.Int (1, 255), 50, 5, 0.1) end for

Any thoughts?

[Delos]

Processes! Noooooo!!!

Ok, they're not that bad, but almost. I would suggest you take all those parameters you've got, and turn them into a record-type instead. Now, you'll be able to create a pretty array of these balls, which you will be able to manipulate in a procedure, as opposed to a process.

There've been a number of similar submissions over the last while. One that (naturally) stands out was Catalyst's a while back. His was more a gravity oriented type thing anyway, but it did show the vectors graphically as well. See if you can find it, it'd could be useful.
I tried it out without the clearing of the balls, and the resulting shape oddly reminded me of certain protein structures one finds...

[[Gandalf]]

Well, at least you used them for their purpose ...

Yeah, without the clearing it sometimes looks pretty good, but sometimes it just looks like a pile of crap - literally. I don't know, it turns out differently.

To reduce the flickering you either reduce the delay you have greatly, or you just add "offscreenonly" and "View.Update" after following Delos' advice.

[Laetus Constituo]

Hi! It's me, Laetus, Lapsus' friend! *waves* We've been working on the dots program, and pretty well redone everything, as well as added COLISION! Now the dots can slam into each other, and grow! yay! And Delos, no processes!

[Laetus Constituo]

Hey...what the....that's weird, so let's try again! Sorry bout the length, tried to upload it, but something didn't work.. Oh well

code:

code var window : int := Window.Open ("fullscreen, graphics, title:PARTICLEs") colourback (black) cls colour (0) var words : string := "How many particles do you want? " for i : 1 .. length (words)     put words (i) ..     delay (5) end for var ans : int := 2 get ans cls setscreen ("noecho, nocursor") const dotamount : int := ans var counter : int := 0 type particle :     record         x : int         y : int         xs : real         ys : real         siz : int         force : real         colour : int         alive : boolean     end record var exita : boolean := false var dot : array 1 .. dotamount of particle for i : 1 .. dotamount     dot (i).x := Rand.Int (0, maxx)     dot (i).y := Rand.Int (0, maxy)     dot (i).xs := 0     dot (i).ys := 0     dot (i).siz := 5     dot (i).force := 0.1     dot (i).alive := true     dot (i).colour := Rand.Int (1, 4)     if dot (i).colour = 1 then         dot (i).colour := brightred     elsif dot (i).colour = 2 then         dot (i).colour := yellow     elsif dot (i).colour = 3 then         dot (i).colour := brightgreen     elsif dot (i).colour = 4 then         dot (i).colour := brightblue     end if end for process exiter     loop         if hasch then             exita := true             exit         end if         if exita = true then             exit         end if     end loop end exiter fork exiter loop     for i : 1 .. dotamount         if dot (i).alive = true then             drawfilloval (dot (i).x, dot (i).y, dot (i).siz,                 dot (i).siz,                 dot (i).colour)         end if     end for     delay (10)     for i : 1 .. dotamount         if dot (i).alive = true then             drawfilloval (dot (i).x, dot (i).y, dot (i).siz,                 dot (i).siz,                 black)         end if     end for     for i : 1 .. dotamount         for h : 1 .. dotamount             if dot (i).alive = true and dot (h).alive = true then                 if dot (i).x > dot (h).x then                     dot (i).xs -= dot (h).force                 elsif dot (i).x < dot (h).x then                     dot (i).xs += dot (h).force                 end if                 if dot (i).y > dot (h).y then                     dot (i).ys -= dot (h).force                 elsif dot (i).y < dot (h).y then                     dot (i).ys += dot (h).force                 end if             end if         end for     end for     for i : 1 .. dotamount         dot (i).x += round (dot (i).xs)         dot (i).y += round (dot (i).ys)     end for     for i : 1 .. dotamount         for h : 1 .. dotamount             if dot (i).alive = true and dot (h).alive = true then                 if dot (i).x not= dot (h).x and dot (i).y not=                         dot (h).y then                     if sqrt ( (dot (h).x - dot (i).x)                             ** 2 + (dot (h).y - dot (i).y)                             ** 2) < dot (h).siz + ( (dot (h).xs +                             dot (h).ys) / 2) then                         dot (i).alive := false                         dot (h).siz += dot (i).siz                         dot (h).force += dot (i).force                         dot (i).force := 0                         dot (h).colour := Rand.Int (1, 4)                         if dot (h).colour = 1 then                             dot (h).colour := brightred                         elsif dot (h).colour = 2 then                             dot (h).colour := yellow                         elsif dot (h).colour = 3 then                             dot (h).colour := brightgreen                         elsif dot (h).colour = 4 then                             dot (h).colour := brightblue                         end if                     end if                 end if             end if         end for     end for     for i : 1 .. dotamount         if dot (i).alive = false then             counter += 1         end if     end for     if counter = dotamount - 1 then         for i : 1 .. dotamount             dot (i).x := Rand.Int (0, maxx)             dot (i).y := Rand.Int (0, maxy)             dot (i).xs := 0             dot (i).ys := 0             dot (i).siz := 5             dot (i).force := 0.1             dot (i).alive := true             dot (i).colour := Rand.Int (1, 4)             if dot (i).colour = 1 then                 dot (i).colour := brightred             elsif dot (i).colour = 2 then                 dot (i).colour := yellow             elsif dot (i).colour = 3 then                 dot (i).colour := brightgreen             elsif dot (i).colour = 4 then                 dot (i).colour := brightblue             end if         end for     end if     counter := 0     for i : 1 .. dotamount         if dot (i).x < 0 or dot (i).x > maxx then             dot (i).xs *= - 1         end if         if dot (i).y < 0 or dot (i).y > maxy then             dot (i).ys *= - 1         end if     end for     exit when exita = true end loop Window.Close (window)

[Delos]

Couple things:
You should use 'offscreenonly' to clear the dots instead of drawing dots over the old dots:

Turing:

setscreen ("offscreenonly")     %...     for i : 1 .. dotamount         if dot (i).alive = true then             drawfilloval (dot (i).x, dot (i).y, dot (i).siz,                 dot (i).siz,                 dot (i).colour)         end if     end for     delay (10)     View.Update     cls

Also, you don't need the 'exiter' process. Having an 'exit when hasch' condition at the end of your loop will do exactly the same thing.

I like it so far, now try to change it around a bit - allow for bounces between particles instead of merges. Even better yet, try turn this into a class!

+ bits

[Laetus Constituo]

You're right, I should've used an 'exit when' statement instead of a process. As for offscreenonly, it doesn't seem to work with the older versions of Turing, which is what i'm using, Turing 3.0.1A. But thanks for the advice!

[Delos]

You're still running that! Yes, yes, please do update. If you have contact with your teacher, you should be able to ask them for the update.