Re: Advice on setup on Mac

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 3:35 AM, Sophie <[e-mail]> wrote:
> [Apologies if this appears as 2 posts -- my last post never seemed to
> make it through]
>
> I just setup NetBeans for Ruby on my Mac (quite like it so far). I'm
> familiar to Ruby, getting back to it after a break. I will be using it
> with my young kids, teaching them basics of programming to go with
> their beginning algebra, physics, etc.
>
> Over time I expect to use command line, simple GUIs, perhaps some
> graphics/animation, eventually simple games.
>
> Am seeking advice on the set up for this, what libraries / gems to
> use, etc. I am not set on any particular ones, do not need awesome
> power, just want something that will work without too much effort on
> the Mac.
>
> - Which version of Ruby to use? NetBeans shows a jRuby install +
> 1.8.6. Pros/cons of 1.9.1 for my usage?
>
> - What tool / gems to use for GUI (Tk? Shoes? Other?

I am having a lot of success with Fox right now - I find it possible
to build quite a nice interface
with few lines of code, and there's foxGUIb if you want something to
help you build forms.
Its not seamless like Visual Studio dragging and dropping and then
double-clicking a control,
but you can still get a very nice interface working quite quickly once
you have a bit of experience.

> - What tool / gems to use for games (Gosu? Chingu? other?)

Gosu is great. Every now and then I take a photo of one of my
daughter's great works of art
and then write a class to specify the behaviour of this new
"character". Then I add the character
to the existing collection and they all move around together in their own way.

My daughter loves to see her art animated and she always has requests when she
sees it: "can I make the doggie move?" etc.

I'll post a few examples (you'll need to add your own custom artwork):


---- basic "character.rb"

class Character
	attr_accessor :x, :y

	def initialize(image, x, y, x_scale = 1, y_scale = 1, col = 0xffffffff)
		@image, @x, @y, @x_scale, @y_scale, @col = image, x, y, x_scale, y_scale, col
	end

	def draw
		@image.draw(@x, @y, 0, @x_scale, @y_scale, @col)
	end

	def update
	end

	def width
		@image.width
	end

	def height
		@image.height
	end
end

---- a "snail.rb"
require 'character'

class Snail < Character
	def initialize(image, x, y)
		super(image, x, y, 0.5, 0.5, 0xffffffff)
	end

	def update
		@x += 1 if(rand(10) < 3)
		@x -= 1 if(rand(10) < 1)
		@x = 0 if @x < 0
		@x = 1280 if @x > 1280
	end
end

---- a "doggie.rb"

require 'character'

class Doggie < Character
	def initialize(image, x, y, x_scale = 1, y_scale = 1, col = 0xffffffff)
		super(image, x, y, x_scale, y_scale, col)
		@s = 0
		@base = 470
		@xr = 0
		@xl = 0
	end

	def update
		@y = @base - 30 * Math::sin(@s)
		@s += 0.1
		@s = 0 if @s >= Math::PI

		if @xr > 0
			@x += 1
			@xr -= 1
		end

		if @xl > 0
			@x -= 1
			@xl -= 1
		end
	end

	def right
		@xr = 50
	end

	def left
		@xl = 50
	end
end


---- some "grass.rb"
require 'character'

class Grass < Character	
end

----- the "sun.rb"
require 'character'

class Sun < Character	
end


----- main "garden.rb"

#!/usr/bin/ruby

require 'rubygems'
require 'gosu'

require 'snail'
require 'doggie'
require 'sun'
require 'grass'

$W = 1280
$H = 800

class MainWindow < Gosu::Window
	def initialize
		super($W, $H, true)
		self.caption = 'Garden'

		@characters =
			grow_grass(0.6, 10, $H - 226, 0x7fbbbbbb) + 				#back
			grow_grass(0.7, 9,  $H - 194, 0x9fbbbbbb) +
			grow_grass(0.8, 8,  $H - 162, 0xbfbbbbbb) +
			grow_grass(0.9, 7,  $H - 130, 0xdfbbbbbb) +
			grow_grass(1.0, 6,  $H - 98,  0xffbbbbbb) + 				#front
			[
				Sun.new(Gosu::Image.new(self, 'media/sun-320.png'), $W - 200, 30, 0.5, 0.5),
				@dog = Doggie.new(Gosu::Image.new(self, 'media/doggie-320.png'),
500, $H - 270, 0.5, 0.5),
				Snail.new(Gosu::Image.new(self, 'media/snail-320.png'), 0, $H - 150)
			]
	end

	def grow_grass(scale, div, y, col)
		blades = Grass.new(Gosu::Image.new(self, 'media/grass-320.png'), 0,
0, scale, scale, col)
		grass = []
		div.times do |x|
			b = blades.dup
			b.x = (x * ($W / div)) - 20
			b.y = y
			grass << b
		end
		grass
	end

	def update
		@characters.each {|c| c.update}
	end

	def draw
		draw_quad(0,   0, 0xdd0080ff,
							0,	$H, 0x1100ff00,
							$W, $H, 0xffffff00,				#top right
							$W,  0, 0x1100ff00)				#bottom right
		@characters.each {|c| c.draw}
	end

	def button_down(id)
		close if id == Gosu::Button::KbEscape
		@dog.right if id == Gosu::Button::KbRight
		@dog.left if id == Gosu::Button::KbLeft
	end
end

main = MainWindow.new
main.show