Short
intro to Pasteltalk
Bror Arnfast
Download the Pasteltalk program for Windows here
or start the machine in a browser (allow your browser to install adobe shockwave if you dont have that plug-in already)
Ill. The Pasteltalk interface
With Pasteltalk you can achieve an understanding of these concepts by
experimenting:
List of basic instructions of Pasteltalk
Coordinate system, lines and angles
The coordinate system is defined un-mathematical like in Flash, Director and
webbrowsere e.g. X-axis direction is to the right and Y-axis direction is DOWN.
The unit for the coordinates is a pixel.
Angles are declared in degrees and positive numbers turns clockwise.
Lines can be
drawn in different widths but may show holes and edges when the stroke is
larger than 1.
Colours and surfaces
Colours are defined by three values between 0 and 255 representing Red,
Green og Blue respectively.
Rectangle takes 4 parameters being the x and y coordinat for one corner and
x and y coordinates for the opposite corner.
Oval takes parameters as well, defining the rectangle that encloses the
oval. (Remember a circle is just a square oval.)
Built in functions
abs(x)
absolute value,
abs(2)=2, abs(-2)=2, abs(1.35)=1.35,
abs(-1.35)=1.35
atan(x)
arctangent, atan(1)=0.7854 (please note here angles are given in radians)
cos(x)
cosinus, cos(1)=0.5403
date()
a=date()
, a will get the string value of today
e.g.: "03-01-2005"
exp(x)
e in the
power of x (e being the natural logarithm
base number)
integer(x)
rounds x to
nearest integer, integer(3.75)=4
log(x)
the natural
logarithm of x, log(4.3)=1.4586
PI, pi
(pi is not a
function but rather a constant) PI=3.1416
power(a,x)
puts a in
the power of x, power(4,3)=64 = 4*4*4
random(x)
returns a
random integer between 1 and x,
random(5)=3 (or maybe 2? 1? 4? or 5?)
sin(x)
the sine of
x, sin(1.57)=1.0000 (note: angles in radians)
sqrt(x)
square root
of x, sqrt(100)=10
tan(x)
tangent of x,
tan(2.0)= -2.1850 (note: angles in
radians)
time()
the computer
clock, a=time() , a gets the string
value of the system clock e.g.: "09:45 "
The functions date() and
time() who returns strings are not very usefull in this context but we can see
the values in the variable window if we assign the function to a variable.
Examples |
walk(60) turn(45) .. after 6
clicks on DO-IT base; newcanvas; newcolor(220,230,175); oval(50,50,250,250); newcolor(175,230,230); oval(100,100,200,200); newcolor(230,160,255); oval(130,130,170,170); Ovals can be
circles Train
wagon function
square6(side){ walk(side) turn(90) walk(side) turn(90) walk(side) turn(90) walk(side) turn(90) walk(side) turn(90) walk(side) } newcanvas base a=1 b=2 for (i=1;i<20;i++){ c=a+b a=b b=c square6(c) } Fibonacci Recursion Artwork by
Jan Skovgård |