Swarm in newLISP

[Fanda]

I am playing with the simulation of swarm.



You can find it here as a file swarm.lsp:

http://www.volny.cz/fsodomka/newlisp/">http://www.volny.cz/fsodomka/newlisp/



Enjoy, Fanda

[newdep]

Thats a dammmmm nice one !

[Lutz]

Fantastic, beautiful!



Lutz

[Fanda]

Feel free to change parameters to see what it does. It's really addicting :-)



Fanda

[pjot]

Very cool!



Peter

[Lutz]

Here is a simple program to run Fanda's swarm.lsp and inversi.lsp without newlisp-tk just using the concole app newlisp and a Tcl/Tk installation: http://newlisp.org/index.cgi?page=Tk_and_newLISP">http://newlisp.org/index.cgi?page=Tk_and_newLISP



Lutz

[Fanda]

Unfortunately, 'peek' is only available on UNIX like operating systems =>

Code Select Expand


(while (= (peek myin) 0))

will not work on Windows.



Just wanted to let you know...



Fanda

[Lutz]

Oops, I forgot, thanks for letting me know, on Win32 you still got to do: newlisp-tk swarm.lsp .



Lutz

[Dmi]

Just checked. Cool thing!

[Fanda]

Hello!

I have been trying to make it work on Windows.



Some scripts run just fine, when I comment the line:

(while (= (peek myin) 0))



I added error checking and divided (write-line ...) into 2 lines. Inversi doesn't want to run, if I write (write-line ...) on 1 line only. (I don't know why.)

Code Select Expand

; tk function to pass commands to Tcl/Tk
(define (tk)
  (write-line (append "if { [catch { puts [" (apply string (args)) "] }] } { " [text] tk_messageBox -message "$errorInfo"; exit }
    [/text]) myout)
  (read-line myin))
(global 'tk)


I also tried some tests for tk function:

Code Select Expand

; call inside the call
(tk "tk_messageBox -type ok -message {You clicked '" (tk "tk_messageBox -type yesno -message {Click on something :-)}") "'!}")

; catches error correctly:
;(tk "set x [expr {1 +}]")

; it doesn't catch bad brackets -> freezes up afterwards!
;(tk "set x {whatever here")


With this tk function both Inversi and Swarm run fine on Windows.



Fanda

[Lutz]

You may check if the the 'read-line' on a pipe in Windows blocks or not when no data is available. On Unix 'read-line' will not block but return a 'nil'. This is why the (peek myin) comes in handy.



If 'read-line' doesn't block on Windows either, you might just put (sleep ..) statements before reading to make sure data is available. Perhaps splitting the 'write-line' changes the timing.



Or, if it blocks, make sure there is always data to read ready from the TclTk side. If no data is available and it blocks, newLISP would sit in the 'read-line' and freeze.



I will try your new (tk ..) function with error checking when I get to a Windows machine and incorporate it into nl-tcltk.





Lutz

[Fanda]

- I believe that 'read-line' on Windows blocks when no data is available. I think, we can prove it using "call inside the call" - without 'peek' on Unix it should return "You clicked 'nil'". (Could anybody try it on Unix without 'peek', please?)

On Windows it waits and says correctly 'yes' or 'no'.



- We could write 2 versions of tk function:

if OS is Unix -> tk with 'peek' - else - tk without it



- My guess when splitting the 'write-line' to 2 lines was that Tcl needs some spaces or end of line characters to correctly process the command(s).



- The 3rd tk test of catching the bad brackets freezes up because Tcl can't process the command correctly - it's missing the brackets, but will not throw an error because there is no clear beginning and the end of commands (including catch and puts).



- I would like to add a constant to nl-tcltk

Code Select Expand

; constant to differentiate between newlisp-tk and this wrapper
(constant (global 'NL-TCLTK) true)

It's useful when exiting the script

nelisp-tk -> deiconify '.'

wrapper -> exit wish and exit newlisp



Fanda

[Lutz]

On UNIX/OSX:



get first dialog box "click on something",

click 'yes' which brings a second dialog box "you clicked on 'yes'",

click 'ok' which returns "ok" in newLISP.



Lutz

[Lutz]

But I am not sure if it will always work? becuase I have put in the (peek ..) because I had instances where it would go into read-line to fast and return 'nil' before a string had arrived.



Lutz

[Fanda]

Cool, it means that this can be used as a test if 'read-line' blocks or not.



Fanda