JS exercise 14 – Simple hit test

This simple hit test exercise combines two previous ones, so I won’t go through the “old” parts of the code. Basically, it adds code to our “Drag square” exercise, mostly from the “Trail” exercise, and also a simple collision test.

JS exercises 12 and 13 – Paper.js Mouse Tools

For the next two (brief) exercises, we will run two Paper.js tutorials, so I will point to those resources:

• Line tool example (we named it “draw lines with mouse”)
• Minimum distance (we named it “draw blobs”)

JS exercise 11 – Smiley revisited, in Paper.js

In this exercise, we will see how we can replicate our earlier JavaScript “paths” exercise of drawing a smiley using Paper.js. This will allow us to see the similarities and differences between both approaches. We also added a resize functionality. More info is available at the Paper.js tutorials “Getting Started” and “Paths“, and checking Paper.js Path reference is very useful. This is the code for the exercise:

Paper.js

Paper.js is “an open source vector graphics scripting framework that runs on top of the HTML5 Canvas. It offers a clean Scene Graph / Document Object Model and a lot of powerful functionality to create and work with vector graphics and bezier curves, all neatly wrapped up in a well designed, consistent and clean programming interface.”
http://paperjs.org/

The documentation is well organized, the website is well designed, and the examples and tutorials are very helpful.

The idea of introducing Paper.js in the course is not to teach the whole library per se (far from it, as we only had one morning for Paper.js), but to exemplify how the use of a library can be useful, and save much work. Particularly a well designed and documented one, such as Paper.js.

JS exercise 10 – Image resize

In this exercise of today, we will explore two topics – placing image files on the canvas, and canvas resizing to fit the browser window size. The objective is to line up a series of “clones” of the same image across the browser window, and make this line stay consistent independent of window size. The result is an alignment of stars, with an outlier rebel star thrown in. This is the whole code:

JS exercise 9 – Drag Square

In this exercise, we will explore how to create a drag and drop functionality. The aim is to enable dragging a square around the screen, with the option of leaving a trail or not.

This is the code for the exercise:

JS exercise 8 – Random Text

In this exercise, we will look into arrays, text display and keyboard input, and mix all of this into one exercise. The aim of the exercise is to juxtapose successive random quotes on the canvas.

This is the resulting code:

JS exercise 7 – Square Loops

This exercise aims to demonstrate the usefulness of “for loops” to execute repetitive tasks. The objective of the exercise is to create a gradient out of dozens of uniformly colored squares, which change color depending on cursor position. This is the code for the exercise:

Introduction to DOM (Document Object Model)

The Document Object Model is “an application programming interface (API) for valid HTML and well-formed XML documents. It defines the logical structure of documents and the way a document is accessed and manipulated” (from W3C).

Wikipedia adds some useful JavaScript-related insights:

• “A Web browser is not obliged to use DOM in order to render an HTML document. However, the DOM is required by JavaScript scripts that wish to inspect or modify a Web page dynamically. In other words, the Document Object Model is the way JavaScript sees its containing HTML page and browser state.”
• “An HTML page is rendered in a browser. The browser assembles all the elements(objects) that are contained in the HTML page, downloaded from web-server in its memory. Once done the browser then renders these objects in the browser window. Once the HTML page is rendered in web-browser window, the browser can no longer recognize individual HTML elements(Objects).”
• “Since the JavaScript enabled browser uses the Document Object Model (DOM), after the page has been rendered, JavaScript enabled browsers are capable of recognizing individual objects in an HTML page.”
• “The HTML objects, which belong to the DOM, have descending relationship with each other.”
• “The topmost object in DOM is Navigator (i.e. Browser) itself. The next level in DOM is browser’s Window. And next is Documents displayed in Browser’s Window.”

The image exemplifying the DOM is also from Wikipedia.

The whole specification from W3C of DOM Level 3, the current release of DOM: http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/

JS exercise 6 – Trail

In this exercise, we will create a colorful trail, based on a dot moving across the canvas in a random direction, bouncing off its edges. Everytime the page is refreshed, the direction changes.

This is the whole code: