StarlogoT2002 Readme

StarLogoT2002 is the latest release of StarLogoT from the Center for Connected Learning. It follows the previous 2001 R2 release.

StarLogoT is part of the NSF-Funded Project "Making Sense of Complex Phenomena Through Building Object-Based Parallel Models:" http://ccl.northwestern.edu/cm/.

When referencing this software, please do so in the following manner:

Wilensky, U. 1997. StarLogoT. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/cm/starlogoT/. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-based Modeling. Northwestern University. Evanston, IL.

• MacOS computer with a PowerPC processor.

• Apple Guide system software extension.

• At least 15 megabytes of available RAM.

• StarLogoT2002 application.

• Apple Guide help file accessible through the StarLogoT help menu.

• Complete HTML reference guide accessible through the StarLogoT help menu and from the Macintosh Finder.

• Sample models.

• Code example models.

StarLogoT2002 is distributed with two folders of models.

The Sample Models folder contains a set of models that are exemplary models and demonstrate good coding practice. This package is a subset of the entire Connected Models package which currently contains over 100 models from a wide range of disciplines.

The Code Examples folder contains a set of models that are intended to demonstrate common StarLogoT idioms. These are very simple models that can serve as an introduction to StarLogoT and as building blocks for your models.

To download the entire Connected Models Package or to download individual models visit the StarLogoT models page: http://ccl.northwestern.edu/cm/models/.

By default, the Finder will allocate StarLogoT between 14 and 60 megabytes of memory, depending on the number of other programs you have running when StarLogoT starts up. If StarLogoT does not have enough memory available to run your model, you can make up to 60 megabytes available by quitting other programs and then restarting StarLogoT. If your settings require more than 60 megabytes of memory, you will have to increase the amount of memory that the Finder allocates to StarLogoT.

To do so, select the StarLogoT program file in the Finder, then select "Get Info" from the "File" menu (shortcut: Command-I). A window will open with information about the file. Select "Memory" from the "Show:" dropdown menu, and the info window will show you StarLogoT's memory settings. Change the "Minimum Size:" textbox to the amount of memory your model requires, and the "Preferred Size:" textbox to 5 megabytes more than that. Then restart StarLogoT.

WARNING: If you intend to distribute a model that requires special memory settings in the Finder, be sure to inform your audience. A model that works with your adjusted settings will not work with the Finder's default settings.

One of the new features of StarLogoT 2002 is graphics buffering. Graphics buffering produces slower animation, but some Macintosh platforms require it - namely, machines running OS X and dual monitor machines (including machines hooked up to video projectors). Without graphics buffering, StarLogoT's graphics window may not display properly.

StarLogoT will detect whether your machine requires graphics buffering when it starts up. However, to speed up your model's animation, you can maually disable graphics buffering with the "Buffering" checkbox in the settings window.

Dual monitor machines must also have both monitors set to the same color depth in order to display properly.

Because StarLogoT uses the Apple Guide help system, the system extension "Apple Guide" must be in your Extensions folder.

Our exhaustive documentation is provided in HTML format. Opening this documentation requires Internet Config, which ships with most Macintosh computers. If you do not have Internet Config installed, it is available via FTP at: ftp://ftp.stairways.com/other/internetconfig-202.sit.

Please contact us at bugs@ccl.northwestern.edu if you have further problems accessing StarLogoT's help files.

When running under OS X, StarLogoT provides two different menu items for accessing its User's Guide - "StarLogoT User's Guide [Netscape, IE 5]." and "StarLogoT User's Guide [IE 5.1]." The two different items support the two different naming conventions these browsers use for local files on an OS X formatted hard drive. Therefore, if you are running Netscape or IE 5, you should select the first item, and if you are using IE 5.1 (or later) you should select the second item. Doing otherwise will result in a "file not found" error.

New Features of StarLogoT 2002:

StarLogoT is new and improved for 2002. StarLogoT2002 comes with support for OS X, a "find" and "find/replace" dialog for text windows, a new settings dialog, improved documentation, and a laundry-list of bug fixes.

• New features:
  • OS X support: StarLogoT will now run on OS X (in "classic" mode).
  • Search window: Users now have a convenient way to search for text in StarLogoT text windows.
  • Startup speed: StarLogoT startup time has been cut in half.
  • Settings dialog box is new and improved:
    • Fixed the "Defaults" button:
      • Its changes can be cancelled now.
      • Clicking it no longer opens up the painting tools.
      • It reverts to StarLogoT's default settings instead of the user's last saved settings.
      • It is conscious of different screen resolutions.
    • Improved estimation of needed memory.
    • Fixed: some groups of settings crash StarLogoT.
    • Added a note about how to increase memory available to StarLogoT.
    • Added a "Force Square" checkbox to force the graphics window to be a square.
    • Added a "Buffering" checkbox to turn graphics buffering on and off (see readme for details).
    • Eliminated the "more..." button.
    • Moved "Init String" from the edit menu to "Default Startup Commands" in the settings dialog.
    • Improved estimation of which window settings will actually fit on the screen.
    • Fixed the patch size drop down list to accurately report the currently selected patch size.
  • Documentation revisions:
    • The User's Guide now makes the "emergent phenomena" focus of StarLogoT explicit. This includes:
      • A new user tutorial
      • A new programming tutorial (simplified gas diffusion model).
      • A new introductory section explaining emergent phenomena.
    • Added menu item explanations.
    • Added settings window explanations.
    • Added information on arrays.
    • Cleaned up grammar, some erroneous explanations, old Tufts web addresses, obsolete mailing lists, and logical ordering.
    • Standardized notation for how '[xxx]-at' functions work.
    • Histogramming doc now reflects the fact that sethist-xrange is an alias to setplot-xrange.
    • Eliminated erroneous characters in the appleguide.
    • Changed the help menu items to "StarLogoT Quick Reference" and "StarLogoT User's Guide."
  • Resizable sliders: StarLogoT sliders are now resizable.
  • "Windows" menu: The "Windows" menu is now better organized, and it includes command keys to select each of the StarLogoT windows.
  • New "Mutual Exclusion" demo in the code examples.
  • Color dialog boxes.
• Bug fixes:
  • Interface:
    • Fixed: projectors and dual monitors can't display the graphics properly.
    • The graphics window now reports the name of the user's model in the title bar.
    • Fixed: shape names in the shapes chooser widow get jumbled after you choose a few different shapes.
    • Fixed: save settings doesn't actually save your settings.
    • Fixed: selecting "yes" and then "cancel" in a "would you like to save changes . . ." dialog doesn't actually cancel the quit/new operation.
    • Fixed: selecting "cancel" in a "would you like to save changes . . ." dialog for the output window doesn't actually cancel the quit operation.
    • Fixed: selecting "no" for "save changes to output window?" -> crash.
    • Fixed: when you open multiple text files, only the text of the first shows up in its window.
    • Fixed: text file buffers don't reflect the fact that their files are read-only.
    • Fixed: the eraser painting tool can't erase turtles.
    • The "close" "save" and "save as" menu items now gray themselves out when they can't be used.
    • Fixed: cg and undo in the paint toolbar don't wait for mouse-up to execute (therefore, a long click on undo turns into five or six clicks which recursively undo themselves - very confusing . . .).
    • Fixed: clicking on the toolbar doesn't always click one of its buttons.
    • Fixed: selecting an already selected window from the "Windows" menu actually un-selects the window.
    • Put "StarLogoT" instead of "CL-USER" in the bottom corner of all text windows.
    • Fixed: patch monitors don't display their patches' colors correctly.
    • Capitalized menu items.
  • Plots and Histograms:
    • Plot-point:
      • Fixed: autoplot-on doesn't work with plot-point - only with plot.
      • Fixed: plot redraw (changing the range or minimizing the plot window) erases old plot-point plots.
    • Graph legend:
      • Fixed: loading a new file doesn't clear the graph legend values.
      • unnamed plot-pens are now named "" instead of "ppn"
      • graph legend now legend aligns itself to the bottom of its parent plot window
    • Histogram-list now plots relative to the histogram range (so 0 plots at 0 and not just at the lowest end of the range, which might be -10, 30, etc.).
    • Sethist-xrange and setplot-xrange are now interchangeable.
    • The histogramming sample code is more understandable now.
  • Sample models:
    • Fixed: models sometimes fail to load their unique settings.
    • Some models had totally bogus shapes tables and they often crashed because of it.
    • Fixed: erroneous uses of stop in sample models.
  • Sliders:
    • Fixed: funky slider values - now, sliders only display multiples of their increments.
    • Fixed: StarLogoT allows you to have two sliders for the same variable and only displays a cryptic error message to tell you what's going on.
  • Fixed: opening or importing a file without enough memory causes crashes.
  • Fixed: mouse-down? doesn't always register in a region with turtles in it.
  • Improved the exponentiation and log primitives: they are now more accurate.
  • Fixed: int and floor primitives don't always return the right values.
  • Fixed: rounding errors.
  • Fixed: on some machines, sleeping the computer crashes StarLogoT.
  • Eliminated the bogus "save" option after a StarLogoT crash.
  • StarLogoT now runs the "startup" function (or "Default Startup Commands" if "startup" is not defined) when settings get changed or when the user selects "file->new."

On some systems, under some conditions, StarLogoT may crash with an error of type 2 or 3, or break to a "Listener" window. This is most likely because StarLogoT has run out of memory. See above ("A Note on Memory") for how to allocate more memory to StarLogoT. For additional assistance, please send as detailed a report as possible (Macintosh model, RAM, system software version, available disk space, partition allocated to StarLogoT, other apps running, Virtual Memory on?, etc.) to bugs@ccl.northwestern.edu.

To provide feedback please send a message to: feedback@ccl.northwestern.edu.

To report bugs please send a message to: bugs@ccl.northwestern.edu.

For further information about the Center for Connected Learning and Computer Based Modeling at Northwestern University, please visit: http://ccl.northwestern.edu/.