TBGC Session 10

I was finally able to get a link to the most recent version of the programmable graffiti grapher applet. It is much less buggy and has some additional features the kids really liked. They enjoyed being able to change the color of the background, as well as the shape the spray can draws.

Unfortunately, there were only two computers at the BGC that were able to fully load the applet. I'm not sure if this was because of an issue with the applet, or an issue with the computers not having the most recent version of Java installed. A similar thing happened at our last session in Troy, but the applet was able to load on different computers, which makes me think it may be an issue with the applet or the server on which it is hosted.

The default script that appears when the applet is loaded and the drawing it creates is visually striking, and many of the kids thought it was cool. However, it doesn't encourage them to branch out and try other codelets. Most of the kids just changed the values around in the existing codelets, making slightly modified versions of the default script. When they did this, they would sometimes try to input the largest number they could create. This would often result in the majority of the drawing being off the screen or the screen being full of a single color due to large repetitions of the same pattern. I think there should be some way to limit the input values so they are not too large.

I finally was able to convince some kids to try to make their own creations without using the default script. Their first step would always be to change the color of the spray can. After this, I noticed multiple kids using the "Call Spray Can ( )" codelet. When I asked them why they did this, they said they were trying to name their spray can. They didn't seem to understand that this codelet would call an already existing spray can, even after I tried to explain the concept to them.

A bug I noticed is that when the spray can is first clicked on and the default script appears, there is no scroll bar in the codelet panel until the user clicks inside the panel. Until then, there is no way to scroll down and see the full script.

Another bug I noticed was that the toolbar where the "Begin" and "Clear" buttons is located is not locked. When the user clicks and drags the right spot on the toolbar, he or she can theoretically move it to another location, but once he or she tries to place it in that location, the toolbar disappears. This makes it impossible to run or clear any more scripts until the applet is reloaded.

We were informed that the kids at the Albany BGC would be on a field trip and would not be present, so our ABGC session had to be cancelled. Our final ABGC session for the summer will be on Thursday.