LiveCode Forums.

For a variety of reasons I am trying to set up a stack for children to drag and drop letter tiles onto a grid
with predetermined locations for the tiles.

I cannot use my "normal" drag and drop scripts because children have to be able to clone letter tiles from an "alphabet bank".

So when a child clicks on a template tile in the alphabet bank which contains a script of this sort:

on mouseDown
put the short name of me into IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
clone me
set the name of the last image to IMENA
set the script of img IMENA to fld "fscrip"
end mouseDown

So, if the child clicks on tile template "X.png" s/he ends up with a new tile called "X"
containing the script contained in field "fscrip"

So far, so good, and no rocket science either.

Now the "board' consists of a series of target tiles. Those that are NOT targets are all called "%9", and those that are targets
have names that contain only one alphabetic character; the alphabetic character of the tile that should be dragged there.

Richmond got stuck at this point.

Jeanne De Voto very kindly stepped in with the 'meat' of this:

on mouseUp
put the short name of me into IMENA
repeat with x = 1 to the number of controls
if within(control x, the mouseLoc) AND (IMENA is in the short name of control x) AND (the ID of the target is not the ID of control x) then
--do nix
else
move me to 1000,700
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
end mouseUp

BUT it doesn't work in that the tile always moves to 1000,700.
This is a sort of micro-version of my stack.

A large part of the problem is that the script keeps reporting the name of the underlying
target image as "%9" even when the mouseLoc is within the target "%P2".

I had better say this before anyone else does . .

Yes, this works perfectly:

on mouseDown
grab me
end mouseDown

on mouseUp
if within(img "%P2", the mouseLoc) OR within(img "%P3", the mouseLoc) then
--nix
else
move me to 350,350
end if
end mouseUp

BUT that does NOT help much as while that would be perfectly acceptable for a series of
premade tiles, it is no good for a series of tiles cloned from templates.

If one names one's targets with various non-alphabetic prefixes this works well:

on mouseDown
grab me
end mouseDown

on mouseUp
put the short name of me into IMENA
if within(img ("%" & IMENA), the mouseLoc) OR within(img ("^" & IMENA), the mouseLoc) OR within(img ("#" & IMENA), the mouseLoc) then
--nix
else
move me to 350,350
end if
end mouseUp

AND, when one stops and thinks about things that's a whole lot simpler than what I was trying earlier.

If anyone is interested 'IMENA' (Имена) is Bulgarian for 'name'.
I find it is useful to name variables and fields is such a way that when I return to things later I stand a chance of
understanding what they are there for: by using a foreign language (well, not the commonly tolerated patois - English)
variables and fields are clearly labelled without those labels being reserved words.

I wish my intuitive processes did not always have to take the long way round.

Now my next problem is how to make the cloned tile vanish if it is not dumped on the target:


on mouseDown
grab me
end mouseDown

on mouseUp
put the short name of me into IMENA
if within(img ("%" & IMENA), the mouseLoc) OR within(img ("^" & IMENA), the mouseLoc) OR within(img ("#" & IMENA), the mouseLoc) then
--nix
else
move me to 1000,700
if intersect(img IMENA, grc "vanish") then
delete me
end if
end if
end mouseUp

that script "throws a bluey" because delete me is inside a mouseUp

Here's a version of this stack with a script by Randy Hengist:
and in the context of the small stack it does work.
However it does not work in the context of my stack which has multiple targets:
Hint:
A
P
PUMPKIN
L
E

Very many people came up with helpful advice; most of which I tried, but none of which I took in the end
as it didn't work.

All I can say is Thank Goodness for my wife who dragged me out for a long walk in the fresh air!

It has taken me a far far longer time than I thought it would to iron this lot out, and looking back on it
I can see why; because of my initial "very clever" idea to have end-users cloning letter tiles from templates.

I am posting the full stack here: it's FOSS; so "steal" it, modify it, use it to teach languages, cook your trousers, whatever you want, but DON'T blame me.

Removed link as replaced by file in later posting.
This contains 2 cards: if you want to add more that's up to you.

A further problem has arisen, as when a letter tile is clicked on it contains a script to set the script of the cloned tile:

on mouseDown
put the short name of me into IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
clone me
set the name of the last image to IMENA
set the script of img IMENA to fld "fscrip"
end mouseDown

this throws an exception when a second or a third tile is cloned because it has the same name as an existing tile
so the engine does not "know" which of the 2 tiles called, for instance "X", it must change the script.

Thanks to my wife who tried the stack, I spotted a serious problem which I have now solved
with the use of a global and modified tile scripts and the script in the field "fscrip".

I also tidied up the look of the thing a bit as my wife was, rightly, critical.
Removed link as replaced by file in later posting.

The script inside the template letter tiles now goes like this:

[b]global[/b] TNUMB

on mouseDown
put the short name of me into IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
delete the last char of IMENA
clone me
set the name of the last image to (IMENA & TNUMB)
set the script of img (IMENA & TNUMB) to fld "fscrip"
add 1 to TNUMB
end mouseDown

The global TNUMB is declared and set to 1 in the cardScript,
and now sequential clones are named, for instance "X1", "X2" and so on,
so avoiding the problem that was present before.

However this also has to be accounted for in the script that is "injected" into the cloned letter tiles from the field "fscrip":

on mouseDown
grab me
end mouseDown

on mouseUp
put the short name of me into XIMENA
put the first char of XIMENA into IMENA
put empty into fld "targes"
if exists(img ("%" & IMENA)) then
put the short name of img ("%" & IMENA) & cr after fld "targes"
end if
if exists(img ("^" & IMENA)) then
put the short name of img ("^" & IMENA) & cr after fld "targes"
end if
if exists(img ("$" & IMENA)) then
put the short name of img ("$" & IMENA) & cr after fld "targes"
end if
if exists(img ("&" & IMENA)) then
put the short name of img ("&" & IMENA) & cr after fld "targes"
end if
if exists(img ("*" & IMENA)) then
put the short name of img ("*" & IMENA) & cr after fld "targes"
end if
if exists(img ("!" & IMENA)) then
put the short name of img ("!" & IMENA) & cr after fld "targes"
end if
if exists(img ("+" & IMENA)) then
put the short name ofimg ("+" & IMENA) & cr after fld "targes"
end if
if exists(img ("#" & IMENA)) then
put the short name of img ("#" & IMENA) & cr after fld "targes"
end if
----->>>--X--<<<-----
put the number of lines of fld "targes" into KOUNT
put 1 into KNT
put 0 into WHATNEXT
repeat until KNT > KOUNT
put line KNT of fld "targes" into BULLSEYE
if intersect(img XIMENA, img BULLSEYE) then
put 1 into WHATNEXT
end if
add 1 to KNT
end repeat
if WHATNEXT = 0 then
put the short id of this card into KARD
put the name of this stack into STAQ
put the long id of me into DIMENA
send ("delete DIMENA") to card id KARD of stack STAQ in 0 ticks
end if
end mouseUp

The coloured lines strip the first letter from the letter tile's name to use for checking against suitable targets.
Dog tired . . .

Nice catch! I fixed the issue while messing with your stack by using long id's wherever necessary, but think I like your method better.

I've been messing around with a) cloning, and then b) immedietly grabbing the new cloned letter tile, but haven't managed to make that work.

I'm wondering if an alternate method might help.. Rather than copy a script into your cloned object, it might be possible to grab the original directly, and as part of that code, clone and place a duplicate layered underneath the one being grabbed. In this way, you click and drag rather than click, click drag. (still using your numbered method, or long id's to handle the duplicate object problem) It would require a name change, or flag to mark the grabbed tile so that grabbing the same tile again won't spawn yet another tile. (easy enough to do)

Just a thought. Might improve playability, might make it worse. I haven't tried the alternate method yet.

EDIT: Changed the line that checks for intersect to the following Using "within" removes a little bit of odd behavior

ENDEDIT


Here, try this in your tile buttons (or just one to see what it looks like)
You'll also probably want to add code to the mousedown to track that a piece is already placed so that it can't be removed once placed, and code to make sure a slot hasn't already been filled.

You'll also probably want to add code to the mousedown to track that a piece is already placed so that it can't be removed once placed, and code to make sure a slot hasn't already been filled.

Frankly those weren't bothering me . . . but now you mention them . . . the clever thing would be to remove the name of the target from the field "targes" once the target had been covered.

Hi Richmond,

I suggest an other way without cloning (which create a new id for each clone) and use customprop (avoid change name of controls).

What changes:

1. I have builded a group "grStageBtn" with 60 btn instead 60 imgs
2. A clic on an img letter
• set customprop uMyJob of cd to "MoveLetter"
• set the icon of a btn "bMoveLetter"
• set customprop uMyletter of btn "bMoveLetter" to char 1 of the short name of img letter
• set icon of btn "bMoveLetter" to short id of img letter
3. use mousemove handler instead grab to move btn "bMoveLetter"
4. mouseup of btn "bMoveLetter" set icon of btn of grp grStageBtn under mouseloc (it seems better than intersect)
5. if customprop uMyJob of cd = empty a clic on a placed letter change customprop uMyJob of cd to "moveLetter" and allows move btn "bMoveLetter"

You can download it here:
http://alternatic.ch/jmb/Encours/CRAZY%20LETTERS001.zip

Best regards
Jean-Marc