time I started by attempting to incorporate animation.
I worked with this process for a long time and ultimately realized that it
was further confusing me and how to integrate iterations into the code.
Once again I put myself in the shoes of a student and tried to take a step back. I recognized
that this was making me frustrated and the process that was previously exciting and
where I could see the information synthesizing was becoming murkey and I was losing the
origional concept entirely. I thought about if I was a teacher to this student what would I do?
I would tell that student to evaluate what the core concepts of this project were and
what I needed to know and master in order to continue learning. So, I decided to go back.
Instead of trying to incorporate animation, I went back through the code I had already written and
looked for opportunities to revies and integrate iteration instead of having repitetitive
code.
There were a few different places that needed to be adjusted and that was difficult at times, but
I was able to complete them all! This was a really big win for me in a process that has not been easy.
For the future, I want to incorporate a different planning strategy that will be a little less
create and play and a little more step by step.
books on the shelf itself. This process took a lot of tries
before I setteled on this configuration of shapes and decorations.
Initially, I had different decoraions, and they were not utlizing the
defined variables that I created in a way that I liked. I also took a lot of time
to think about what this process might be like if I was a student. I really appreciated
what you said in your video about writing code like writing a story. There are spaces to plan,
but also spaces to create. So, I looked back and decided that what I created needed to be
honed and fine tuned, almost like a draft when you write creatively. Although the decorations made sense,
they were messy and confusing when you looked at them as a whole. So, I stepped back and
went back to my plan.
There is one section of code that I have been playing with to try and incorporate iteration.
On one book there is a hexagon that consists of multiple triangles. The code looks as follows.
book_decal_triangle(10)
right(60)
book_decal_triangle(10)
right(60)
book_decal_triangle(10)
right(60)
book_decal_triangle(10)
right(60)
book_decal_triangle(10)
right(60)
book_decal_triangle(10)
penup()
I have been trying to make this into an iteration, but it is really tricky! Having the book_decal_triangle
predefined is a lot of layers of coding and I have yet to find a way to layer them
with the result I want. This trial and error is something I am trying to contextualize in the
framework of a student as well. I really enjoyed recognizing the need for simplification,
and knowing that there is a way to accomplish it. Even though it is tough and I havne't figured it out,
it feels like a genuine win to recognizes those needs. Like I said in one of my previous commit messages,
this process has been a big challenge for me to learn. My brain is so used to contextualizing literature,
that learning this new kind of literacy has been a tremendous challenge. Every success throughout this
project has been a really meaningful win.
This was just the beginning of my project. I did find myself wondering if there was a
more efficent way of writing the code itself. I tried a few different ways, using different
definitions and they all ended up being somehow less effective? So, I settled on going through the
actual outlining of the books being manual. I did use docstrings to help myself have a place-
holder for major changes and moves.
My plan moving forward it to try and incorporate more definitions are create the shapes that will
decorate the books themselves and create the texture of the shelf.
Rebecca Hankey
Chris Proctor
rhankey