My Favorite Things

 

My favorite thing during EPGY was making my own code and making sure it worked the way i wanted it to.

 

What does a void function return?

Nothing! It is a “void” function.

What does an int function return?

An int function returns an integer.

What is the difference between a function and a datatype?

A function is an action, but a datatype is a characteristic. For example, eating a cookie is a function, but the size of the cookie is a datatype.

http://processing.org/tutorials/objects/

What is the difference between a function and a class?

A class is used to define a type of something, but a function is an action that can be defined by parameters.

http://processing.org/tutorials/objects/

What is the difference between a class and a data structure?

A class is meant to define something, but a data structure is meant to organize something.

What goes inside the curly braces?

Inside the curly braces (” {”  “}”), you are supposed to put the commands that you want your function to do. For example, if  you have the “draw” function, you put what you want to draw inside the curly braces.

What does the And Gate (&&) do?

If you have an And Gate, the function will not be true unless both the input commands are true.

What does the Or Gate (||) do?

The Or gate says that you only need one of your input commands to be true in order for the whole statment to be true.

 

^picture of our class
The best video games I played at camp were:

This is the Only Level:  http://armorgames.com/play/4309/this-is-the-only-level

Bubble Tanks 2: http://armorgames.com/play/1920

My favorite types of games are RPG games like Maplestory because I like being able to customize my character and control it so that it does what I want it to do.

Here is the EPGY gallery of photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/110478996885609825075/MSP2013

Thanks for reading!

Game Review #9 – Storyteller

Link to the game: http://www.ludomancy.com/games/StoryTeller.html

I don’t like the game “Storyteller” because it is hard to understand, and there aren’t that many controls that actually affect the outcome (or end of the story).

Compared to the Logic Gate Simulator (http://www.cs.kent.edu/~volkert/F10-10051/notes/logsim.html , Storyteller is really bland and doesn’t have a lot of input or output options. In Logic Gate simulator, there are a lot more variables to change and as a result, there are many more different outputs.

 

Thanks for reading!

Computer History Museum

 

^Picture of our EPGY summer camp

 

Yesterday, we went to the Computer History Museum somewhere in California. I thought that the museum was really interesting and organized, because the exhibit was built in a circle, where you started from the beginning of computers, and went around in a huge circle and going through time. The museum was very informative and easy to follow.

Thanks for reading!

Project Proposal

I am going to make a Processing project where if you move your mouse, the car will follow it (on the road). If you click, a bunch of smoke will  come out of the back of the car. This is going to be cool because it already looks good on Paint.

 

Thanks for reading!

Game Review #8 – Tuper Tario Tros (Mario Tetris)

The game Tuper Tario Tros (Mario Tetris) combines Super Mario Bros and Tetris by allowing you to switch to Tetris mode and let block fall down from the sky. This game is pretty fun, and follows the aspects of both games well, so you should definitely play this.

The link to Mario Tetris is here:  http://mariotetris.com/

Thanks for reading!

Robot Arm

^Kevin the Mad Scientist

So Kevin had built this Robot Arm, but the problem was, the robot arm only went left or right, never up and down, and never opened its claws. To fix this, we looked in the code and found some logic errors. After fixing those, the robot arm worked! The robot arm, after being fixed, could move up and down, side to side, and hold/let go of a ball.

Here are some questions:

What is the difference between when Eclipse uses a yellow line versus using a red line? Which one is an error and which one is a warning?

When Eclipse uses a yellow line, it is just a warning, but your code still works even if you don’t fix it. However, a red line means there is a compile error, and Eclipse will return an error if you try to run the code.

What is the difference between a LOGIC error and a COMPILE error. Which type of errors did the Robot Arm have?

A logic error is when something in the code doesn’t make sense, but the code runs anyway, even if the output isn’t quite right. A compile error could be a syntax error or some other error, and the code won’t run if there is a compile error. The Robot Arm had logic errors because the arm ran with the messed up code, so we know it was a logic error.

Why do we use code libraries like the leJOS NXJ?

We use code libraries to store codes so that we can move/transfer them to another object, such as our LEGO Mindstorm robot, Hugo.

What is gamification?

According to Wikipedia, gamification is ” the use of game thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context to engage users and solve problems”. In other words, it is using the concept of games to stimulate people to solve problems. Here is the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification

How mad was Kevin, the mad scientist? Why was he mad?

Kevin was pretty mad because he had spent so long in his cold shack that his brain probably lost half of his brain cells…

Thanks for reading!

Building my Robot

Today, we built and programmed our very own Mindstorm Robot.
We were Team 4, and our members were me (Julia) and Myria —–>http://myriagaming.wordpress.com (her blog).

Our robot is named Hugo because that is the awesomest name ever.

So first we built the robot using the NXT Mindstorm LEGO kit. Then we used a code from online called Bumper Car, where the robot would bump into an object and rotate backwards in order to get away from the object. The code also makes the robot use its sonar (where the eyes are) to detect walls and rotate backwards away from them. Then we created a new java project called “Bumper Car” and a new class called “BumperCar”, and pasted the code in. Then we added the Libraries, and converted the project to LeJOS NXT Program. Finally, we uploaded the code to the robot, and Hugo did the above mentioned things!

Thanks for reading!