How To Lingo Specification

This project's outcome is a set of Director movies that showcase essential Lingo scripting concepts. It is intended to be both an ongoing laboratory exercise and an interactive notebook for Lingo.

Final project submission is due November 4. I may modify the schedule slightly as we go, but we will make every effort to complete the project in nine weeks. Each part of the project is due at the end of the class listed.

"How To Lingo" serves in place of a midterm examination. You will receive a grade for the completed project. I will not ordinarily give detailed or written feedback on each part unless your work needs major improvement; however, you will have the benefit of class discussion and critique at each stage of the project, and you may meet with me at any time during my scheduled hours to discuss your work.

Part 1: Format

Create a Director movie with stage size 640x480 pixels. Name it How2Lingo[YourLastName]. Fill in your last name.

Add a movie script for cast member 1 that, in comments, gives ownership (intellectual property) information. In all scripts, add comments to document your work. Name all cast members.

Add a title text object that will remain on the stage in every scene in the same location. The content of the text object is "How To Lingo." Its size should be small enough to permit other objects to display on the stage but large enough to attain prominence. You will add other text elements to the right of this object.

Add a Quit button that will remain on the stage in every scene in the same location.

Add a button object that when clicked takes the user to a new scene named "Button Actions."

Due: September 9

Part 2: Buttons

Add a 20-frame scene named "Button Actions." Include a marker, a "go to the frame" script at the end of the scene, and a "Menu" button. Add a Lingo script to the Menu button that returns the user to the main menu. The menu button will remain on the stage, in the same location, in every scene except the main menu scene.

Add eight buttons to the "button actions" scene. Name each button for one of the button events that Director supports. Write a Lingo script using the Alert command to handle each event.

Due: September 16

Part 3: Conditionals

Add a 40-frame "Conditionals" scene. Include navigation to/from the main menu.

Import the two butterfly graphics, bfly1.gif and bfly2.gif. Drag images to the stage in the first frame of the scene. Animate the butterflies so that they appear to float across the stage. Add a Lingo script to the bfly1 sprite so that it is not visible in even-numbered frames of your scene, but is visible in the odd-numbered frames.

Publish and post your work to the CCBC Unix server.

Due: September 23

Part 4: Working with Input Fields

Add a 20-frame scene named "Input Fields." Include navigation to/from the main menu.

Adapting pre-existing code, create a score-keeping function using an input text field.

Due: September 25

Part 5: Frame Animation

Add a 20-frame scene named "Walker." Include a marker, a sprite of the "go to the frame" script at the end of the scene, and stretch the sprites for your "Menu" and "Quit" buttons to cover this scene.

Create a frame animation using the prepared GIFs walk01.gif through walk15.gif. You will be told where to find these files. The animation will consist of the walker entering stage left, walking across the stage, and exiting stage right. Special care must be taken to align the feet in the animation to avoid the illusion of skating or "moon walking."

(For the third class in this 3-class sequence): Insert 15 frames while the walker is at center stage and create an animation for the walker walking in place.

Bonus: add a graphic element in the foreground or background that moves while the walker is in place.

Due: October 7

Part 6: Lingo-Controlled Animation

Add a 2-frame scene named "Lingowalker." Name the second frame "Loop." Include a marker, a sprite of the "go to the frame" script, and stretch the sprites of your "Menu" and "Quit" buttons to cover this scene.

Copy the sprites in your frame animation of the walker into the channels in frame 2 of this scene.

Create an animation under Lingo control that, on the Enter Frame event, hides one walker and shows the next.

Set a script in frame 1 of this scene to use a repeat loop to make all of the walkers invisible at the start of the animation.

Bonus: Move the background under Lingo control.

Due: October 14

Part 7: Working with Random Numbers

Add a 10-frame scene named "Random Numbers." Include navigation to/from the Main Menu, and a "go to the frame" sprite to close the new scene.

Include a text field and some text.

Generate a random value for a switching variable and, using a Case statement and the RBG function, assign randomly varying text colors to the text field.

Due: October 21

Part 8: Working with Lists: Acey-Deucey

Add a 10-frame scene named "Lists." Include navigation to/from the Main Menu, and a "go to the frame" sprite to close the new scene.

Using the framework of the Acey-Deucey card game that will be provided, implement a simple card game using the List structure in Lingo to select and manage cards.

Due: October 30