EECS 1720 Lab 6 Mar 9 & 10, 2017

This lab consists of four programming exercises, which use the following Eclipse project archive 1720_W17_Lab06Exercises.zip. Download the file and import it into Eclipse as a project. The four exercises appear below.

To get full marks for this lab assignment, you must:

Go to your lab and enter your name on the sign up sheet.
Complete the four exercises and show your correct solution to Exercise 4 to the TA before the end of the lab session; if your solution is correct, the TA will record it.
Submit your solution to Exercise 4. To do this, first export your project containing your solution to Exercise 4 as a zip archive 1720_W17_Lab06Exercises.zip. Then submit your solution using the following command in a terminal (make sure you are in the directory containing the file you are submitting):
submit 1720 lab6 1720_W17_Lab06Exercises.zip
Make sure you submit before the lab ends.

See also the imagePackage API. The API of the classes in the simulation_Lab06Version package is in the doc directory of the Eclipse project.

Exercise 1

Run the app by invoking AppDriver.java. You will see that the simulation is a solution to Task #5 from the Lab05 exercises. However, by examining the code base, you will see a number of modifications:

The class AnimationModel_Delegated_V2 has been renamed AnimationModel.
The class FrameDrawer_Squiggle_Task5 has been renamed AnimationController.
The constructor of AnimatorController now has a parameter; it requires an AnimationModel. (In the code base from Lab05 exercises, the AnimationModel was instantiated inside the AnimatorController constructor.)

Tasks to perform:

Locate the service which adds the 20 sprites to the animation.
Locate where the sprite behaviour is encapsulated.

Exercise 2

The animation consists of a number of sprites, which are stored in a collection. Notice that the declaration has this form:

private Collection<BasicSprite> myCollection;

whereas the assignment statement is of this form:

myCollection = new ArrayList<BasicSprite>();

Tasks to perform:

Explain why it is ok to assign an ArrayList object to a variable of type Collection.
Change the AnimationModel class so that all of the elements of in the collection are of type BasicSpriteTypeHorizontal rather than BasicSprite. Run the app and observe the new behaviour.
Change the AnimationModel class so that all of the elements of in the collection are of type BasicSpriteTypeVertical rather than BasicSprite. Run the app and observe the new behaviour.

Exercise 3

Now we will modify the animation further.

Tasks to perform:

Modify the code so that the animation has 60 sprites in total; 20 BasicSprite, 20 BasicSpriteTypeHorizontal, and 20 BasicSpriteTypeVertical. Use only one collection. Hint: Notice that all three of the different sprites implement the Sprite interface.

Discussion

The model of the animation "world" includes the number and types of Sprites within it. It is encapsulated by the class AnimationModel.
The model does not include the Sprite behaviours directly, since each Sprite encapsulates its own type of behaviours.
The controller of the animation causes the frames to be redrawn. It delegates to the model to get the new content of each frame.
The controller of the animation is using an observer pattern; it listens to the Observee, which is dispatching ActionEvents at regular intervals. When an ActionEvent is detected, the controller's actionPerformed(ActionEvent) method is invoked.
The set up of the observer and the Observee happens in the SimulationRunnable class.

Exercise 4

Tasks to perform:

Create your own version of an animation model. Populate the simulation with sprites, but use a different configuration from the previous exercises (the number of sprites and how many of each type of sprite should be different). Include at least one new type of sprite. For this, you must define a new class of sprites that implements the Sprite interface. It can be similar to the supplied ones, but you should change at least one observable feature of the sprite, such as colour, shape, motion, etc. Hint: Notice that the AnimationModel class implements the Model interface.
Show your working solution to Exercise 4 to the TA before the end of the lab session.
Submit your project containing your solution to Exercise 4 as indicated above before the end of the lab session.