Mini-Exercise 2 Feedback

The program displays a grid of perfectly identical grey circles. A single circle draws the viewer's attention - it is red as blood. Above the grid, black text reads: /"CLICK THE ERROR AND TURN THE PIECE INTO PERFECTION - IT MIGHT TAKE A FEW TRIES"/. Clicking with the mouse button makes the red circle change into another, seemingly random colour. Once the circle is grey like the others, clicking has no effect.

Looking at the code, much of the space is taken up by the draw() function being told to draw all the circles.


//circle 1 - line 1
    ellipse(50, 100, 100, 100);  

//circle 2 - line 1
    ellipse(155, 100, 100, 100); 

//circle 3 - line 1
    ellipse(260, 100, 100, 100);

Oddly, the rebellious red circle is being called already in setup() instead of draw(). I have no idea why.

function mouseClicked() {
if (farve == 0) {
    noStroke();
    fill(0, 255, 0);
    ellipse(680, 415, 100, 100);
    farve = farve + 1;
    } else if (farve == 1) {
    noStroke();
    fill(0, 0, 255);
    ellipse(680, 415, 100, 100);
    farve = farve + 1;
    } else if (farve == 2) {
    noStroke();
    fill(250);
    ellipse(680, 415, 100, 100);
    farve = farve + 1;
    }
}

Finally, the mouseClicked() function is used to make the circle change its colour. Looking at the code, it seems the program draws a different color circle on top of the previous one each time the mouse is clicked. The circle goes through a hard-coded sequence of colours, and is not random, as I previously thought! Bamboozled again.

The program appeals to an innate desire for order and symmetry. The red circle is an annoyance in an otherwise perfect pattern - an /error/. It does a good job at reflecting how often, to solve an error (especially in programming, I think) one must grasp out at several semi-random solutions, and suddenly it just works and nobody knows why. I like the relatability of the program - both in terms of how it annoys, and how it solves the problem. The code is neat and easy to understand. The only suggestions for improvement I can make are these:

Replace the if/else statement with a switch statement. Switch statements are functionally identical to if/else statements, but easier to read and edit for humans. There are relatively few options in this particular if/else statement, so it's a matter of taste, but in statements with many different options, it's a lifesaver.
Maybe condense the circle into a single function, and have the program call the same function several times? Again, in a program of this size it's entirely a matter of taste, but in more complex program there may be an interest in keeping the code short and sweet.

All things considered, it's a really neat program you made!

mabedk / AP2017

Mini-Exercise 2 Feedback #1