[Suggestion]Merge Drawing and Pixels categories

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SimpleSi
Posts: 330
Joined: Jul 2nd, '17, 13:47

[Suggestion]Merge Drawing and Pixels categories

Post by SimpleSi » Jul 30th, '17, 12:38

I think it would be better to merge these two as I find myself hopping between them looking for blocks.

I realise that we'd end up with a large number of blocks in the category but I feel overall, it would be better than seperate

JohnM
Posts: 379
Joined: Sep 11th, '15, 14:42

Re: [Suggestion]Merge Drawing and Pixels categories

Post by JohnM » Aug 3rd, '17, 22:52

Thanks for the suggestion.

Do you actually write GP programs that use both the drawing and pixel commands? I find that I tend to do drawing or pixel manipulation but seldom both in the same piece of code. I'm curious about when this comes up for you.

It could also be that there a few blocks in one category that are also useful in the other. If so, we might put those blocks in both categories. Since blocks are not color-coded by category, having blocks appear in several places is easier in GP than it would be in Scratch. The transparent, random color, width, and height blocks are examples of blocks that appear in multiple categories. I could definitely see including width and height blocks in the Drawing category.

Thoughts?

SimpleSi
Posts: 330
Joined: Jul 2nd, '17, 13:47

Re: [Suggestion]Merge Drawing and Pixels categories

Post by SimpleSi » Aug 4th, '17, 08:34

This is wya my mind is working on this

I've cottoned on that Pen does stuff on the canvas background (I'm sure this is just for Scratch compatibility - so that's good in that sense)

But for some reason, I hesitate as to which category I need for "drawing" on a instance's canvas becasue things that need to be in both (setting width/height for instance) are only in one of them

Maybe both categories need all common functions in them - then if only a small diff - then see if worth having 2 seperate ones
Maybe if two categogries were next to each other would also be useful for quicky finding a block to use

I try to think like a young person would for these sort of issues as opposed to a CS/graphics expert :)

JohnM
Posts: 379
Joined: Sep 11th, '15, 14:42

Re: [Suggestion]Merge Drawing and Pixels categories

Post by JohnM » Aug 4th, '17, 17:54

Working with pixels and drawing with lines, shapes, and text seem different enough to me to merit two separate categories, even though they both involve changing or reading the pixels of the current costume. You might sometimes do both together -- for example, one might use the pixel operations to generate a texture, then draw shapes or text on top of it -- but I think it will be more common for users to focus on either generating graphics or manipulating pixels.

Let's try putting copies of the most useful blocks from Drawing into the Pixels category so you don't need to flip back and forth when working with Pixels.

I agree that "set width _ height _" would be useful in the Pixels category. How about "fill" and "random color"? Any other blocks?

SimpleSi
Posts: 330
Joined: Jul 2nd, '17, 13:47

Re: [Suggestion]Merge Drawing and Pixels categories

Post by SimpleSi » Aug 4th, '17, 22:00

leaving aside fill for moment - transparent should be in both I feel

And add the width and height reporters from Pixels to Drawing - then both sets will have all common elements

Fill
I feel that its a drawing function so just leave it in drawing

If you did make it common - then all the fill functions should be in both

SvenJ
Posts: 25
Joined: Jul 6th, '17, 08:03

Re: [Suggestion]Merge Drawing and Pixels categories

Post by SvenJ » Aug 5th, '17, 13:19

From an educational standpoint, I can really appreciate the separate categories.

Pixel and vector graphics are a very common subject to introduce to students in order to help them understand information and its representation. The split of these two categories of blocks in GP perfectly mimics the two ways of representing information: as pixels, or as drawings (vectors).

For this reason, I feel as though the separation makes it easier to understand the concept (as opposed to a single category mixing both concepts, which might confuse novices).

JohnM
Posts: 379
Joined: Sep 11th, '15, 14:42

Re: [Suggestion]Merge Drawing and Pixels categories

Post by JohnM » Aug 5th, '17, 13:27

I've made sure certain useful blocks appear in both categories (width, height, set width/height, transparent, and randomColor). This change will be in v74, which should come out in the next few weeks.

Do you use the "find" field at the top of the palette to get blocks? If you know the name of a block (or some word in it), that can be a time-saver. It also takes you to a category that has the block you select. For example, typing "tu" in the find block shows "turn by" in the search results menu and selecting that block takes you to the "Motion" category.

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