Clarification on Coding Name Categories (Vocab Question)

[mcmastersha]

Hey!

I’m actually stuck on a small concept that probably doesn’t have much to do with anything, but I am too detail oriented and want to give my students precise information.

In game lab (and all concepts in Unit 3 on Animations and Game Design), I am working with my students on code order. From what I see, you declare “var Sprite” with “sprite.set animation”, THEN declare properties AFTER that (such as scale, rotation, tint, etc). So it would look like:

var creature = createSprite(200, 200);
creature.setAnimation(“crowned_creature_1”);
creature.scale = 0.3;
creature.rotation = 45;
creature.tint = “purple”;
drawSprites();

With shapes (such as Ellipse/Rect) and TEXT blocks, you set up conditions BEFORE you declare the shape you are using or the text. So for example:

Fill (red); textSize 25 text “Hello”.
fill(“yellow”);
rect(0, 325, 400, 50);
//text
fill(“black”);
textSize(30);
text(“FINISH”, 150, 355);

My question is this. With (Scale/Rotation/tint, etc) I am able to say “set up your Properties”, and Properties is the vocab word. Is there a correct vocab word for the conditions you assign for text and shapes (is there a common term I can refer to text size, fill, text align). Do I say “drawing properties”, is there a better term?

I ask because I have a handful of students who get confused by declaring order of conditions, and it would be easier for me to say “set up your properties AFTER you declare your animation” and "set up your ________ BEFORE you declare your drawing/rect/text etc).

Thanks!

[infinitestasis]

There is no real vocabulary term to refer to these collective functions

“Drawing style settings” would likely be the most accurate.

[mkmietowicz]

Hi @mcmastersha,

Great question! @infinitestasis is correct that there is no blanket term for these types of blocks (at least as far as I’m aware).

The way I like to think of the difference is, for drawing, we are telling the computer which pen to pick up. What color should it be? How thick is the line? Only once we’ve picked up the correct pen can we draw the shape.

For sprites, we need to create the sprite first and then change its properties (scale, animation, location, etc.).

Hope that helps!

–Michael K.