Quiz 104 – Solution
Here is what turtle.rb looked like before I messed with it to produce
Quiz 104.
# An implementation of Turtle Procedure Notation (TPN) as described in
# H. Abelson & A. diSessa, "Turtle Geometry", MIT Press, 1981.
#
# Turtles navigate by traditional geographic coordinates: X-axis
pointing
# east, Y-axis pointing north, and angles measured clockwise from the
# Y-axis (north) in degrees.
class Turtle
include Math
DEG = Math::PI / 180.0
ORIGIN = [0.0, 0.0]
alias run instance_eval
attr_accessor :track
attr_reader :xy, :heading
def degree
DEG
end
###
# Turtle primitives
###
I explicitly define a writer for @xy to get the Logo-like argument
checking that I wanted. Also, I decided to maintain @xy as an array
of floats to minimize the accumulation of position errors in long
tracks.
# Place the turtle at [x, y]. The turtle does not draw when it
changes
# position.
def xy=(coords)
if coords.size != 2
raise(ArgumentError, "turtle needs two coordinates")
end
x, y = coords
must_be_number(x, 'x-coordinate')
must_be_number(y, 'y-coordinate')
@xy = x.to_f, y.to_f
end
Similarly, I explicitly define a writer for @heading. But it’s not
just for argument checking: I also use it to constrain @heading to
the interval [0.0, 360.0).
# Set the turtle's heading to .
def heading=(degrees)
must_be_number(degrees, 'heading')
@heading = degrees.to_f
case
when @heading >= 360.0
@heading -= 360.0 while @heading >= 360.0
when @heading < 0.0
@heading += 360.0 while @heading < 0.0
end
@heading
end
# Raise the turtle's pen. If the pen is up, the turtle will not
draw;
# i.e., it will cease to lay a track until a pen_down command is
given.
def pen_up
@pen = :up
end
When the pen goes down, a new track segment must be added. Initially,
the segment contains only a single point. If the pen goes up before
another point is added to the segment, the segment ends up with just
one point. Such singleton segments are skipped when the track is
processed by in the view.
# Lower the turtle's pen. If the pen is down, the turtle will draw;
# i.e., it will lay a track until a pen_up command is given.
def pen_down
@pen = :down
@track << [@xy]
end
# Is the pen up?
def pen_up?
@pen == :up
end
# Is the pen down?
def pen_down?
@pen == :down
end
###
# Turtle commands
###
# Place the turtle at the origin, facing north, with its pen up.
# The turtle does not draw when it goes home.
def home
pen_up
self.xy = ORIGIN
self.heading = 0.0
end
# Home the turtle and empty out it's track.
def clear
home
self.track = []
end
alias initialize clear
# Turn right through the angle <degrees>.
def right(degrees)
must_be_number(degrees, 'turn')
self.heading = heading + degrees.to_f
end
# Turn left through the angle <degrees>.
def left(degrees)
right(-degrees)
end
This is one of two places in the code where it actually has to do
some trigonometry – Turtle#toward below is the other.
# Move forward by turtle steps.
def forward(steps)
must_be_number(steps, 'distance')
angle = heading * DEG
x, y = xy
self.xy = [x + steps * sin(angle), y + steps * cos(angle)]
track.last << xy if pen_down?
end
# Move backward by <steps> turtle steps.
def back(steps)
forward(-steps)
end
# Move to the given point.
def go(pt)
self.xy = pt
track.last << xy if pen_down?
end
In Turtle#toward, the expression atan2(y2 - y1, x2 - x1) computes the
slope angle of the line between pt and xy. Math#atan2 is better here
than Math#atan because atan2 handles the four quadrant cases
automatically. Once the slope angle is known, it is easily converted
into a heading.
# Turn to face the given point.
def toward(pt)
x2, y2 = pt
must_be_number(x2, 'pt.x')
must_be_number(y2, 'pt.y')
x1, y1 = xy
set_h(90.0 - atan2(y2 - y1, x2 - x1) / DEG)
end
Turtle#distance is easy to implement providing one remembers the
existence of Math#hypot.
# Return the distance between the turtle and the given point.
def distance(pt)
x2, y2 = pt
must_be_number(x2, 'pt.x')
must_be_number(y2, 'pt.y')
x1, y1 = xy
hypot(x2 - x1, y2 - y1)
end
# Traditional abbreviations for turtle commands.
alias fd forward
alias bk back
alias rt right
alias lt left
alias pu pen_up
alias pd pen_down
alias pu? pen_up?
alias pd? pen_down?
alias set_h heading=
alias set_xy xy=
alias face toward
alias dist distance
private
# Raise an exception if <val> is not a number.
def must_be_number(val, name)
if !val.respond_to?(:to_f)
raise(ArgumentError, "#{name} must be a number")
end
end
end
Now that you’ve seen the code, let me discuss some of the
implementation decisions I made.
The first issue I had to deal with was how to reconcile the way
turtles measure angles with the way Ruby/Math measures angles.
Turtles, you recall, (following the conventions of geography/
navigation) measure angles clockwise from north in degrees, while the
Math module (following mathematical conventions) measures angles
counterclockwise from east in radians. Since the Turtle class
includes Math, there are advantages to following mathematical
conventions when maintaining the turtle’s orientation internal to the
class, However, influenced by Logo, I chose to use the navigator’s
notion of angle and to reconcile turtle angles to Math angles each
time I actually did some trig.
I also considered overriding the trig functions with methods that
would accept angles in degrees as their arguments. In the end, I
decided not to, but I still find myself thinking, from time to time,
that I should go back to the code and do it.
The next issue I settled was: what, if any, argument checking should
I do? I settled on accepting any argument that responds to to_f,
raising ArgumentError for those that don’t, and providing Logo-like
error messages. The private method Turtle#must_be_number takes care
of this.
The last major issue was: how should I maintain the turtle’s state?
That is, what instance variables should the class have? My choices were:
@xy turtle location
@heading turtle orientation
@pen pen state (up or down)
@track array needed to interface with Ruby/Tk
One last remark. Over the years I have built up a good-sized
collection of Logo turtle graphics programs. One of reasons I wanted
a Ruby turtle graphics capability was to convert this collection to
Ruby. I had the feeling that Ruby would prove to be a better Logo
than Logo. Well, I’ve performed the conversion and I’m convinced I
was right: the Ruby versions of the Logo programs are simpler, easier
to understand, and often considerably shorter than their Logo
counterparts.
Regards, Morton
