Programming Assignment 07

Deadline: November 13, 2024 – Wednesday, 11:30pm

PA7 - Garden GUI

Learning Objectives

The goal of this assignment is to improve on basic JavaFX knowledge by adding event-driven GUI programming to the PA6 - Garden GUI program.

The Assignment

For PA7, you will be adding events to the GUI representation of PA6. This means there will be no input file to read from. Instead of reading the input file from the command line arguments, you will read in the number of rows and columns of plots in the garden from the command line. Then along with the garden visualization you will create a TextField where a user can input a garden simulation command (e.g., grow 1, plant (2,3) sunflower, …) and then click on a simulate button to show the results of that command.

Another interesting aspect of PA7 is that you will be continuing to refine the Garden simulation code. Some of your code will change and some of the code from previous assignments should be removed.

What needs to be removed

File reading: Since we are no longer reading commands in from a file, all code that is used to read in from a file is no longer needed. You will still need to parse commands however.

Delay Code: In the previous assignment a delay was needed to show the output for every command, for this assignment this is no longer needed since we are running one command at a time via a graphical user interface.

What needs to be added

User input: Since we will not be reading from a file, we are going to need some way to read in commands from the user. We recommend a TextArea and a button to cause the execution of the command in that TextArea. Feel free to try different approaches.

Event Handlers: To use the information that the user provides your code must have at least one Event Handler. This should grab the information from the user and do something with it whenever a specified event occurs. (clicking of a button and/or pressing enter on keyboard)

What needs to be changed

Command line arguments: Instead of reading in a filename from the command line, you will be reading in both the width and height of the garden.

Resources

The provided code uses some new concepts. We will be covering them in class. Additionally, here are some references.

General requirements

This assignment is different from other assignments you’ve had so far in that you are given a lot more freedom to design your output the way you want. However you choose to receive graphical input for your garden, the following general requirements must be met:

  • A user should be able to type in a command and submit it via the GUI. This means that there should be somewhere to insert text and some way to submit that text. Both of these must be intuitive, that means that the user must understand where he/she should insert commands and how to submit said command by only looking at the GUI.

  • Each plant must be one-of-a-kind, meaning they must be distinguishable from any other plant and the background (in shape, color, etc)

  • Each command must be visually noticeable. This means that when ‘GROW 1’ is called for example, it should be visually obvious that every plant just grew by 1.

  • There must be a command log which displays commands as they are being executed.

  • You must handle errors. Errors that don’t cause the program to stop (such as ‘Can’t grow here’) should be distinguishable in the command log. For errors that do cause the program to stop, such as ‘Invalid dimension input’ should still print to to the standard output.

Grading Criteria

Half of the this assignment grade will be a working GUI. Record a video that shows your name in the header for the App.java file and your name in the window title. Submit your assignment code to gradescope.

The other half of the assignment grade will be your decomposition and code clarity.

Decomposition

  • Points will be taken off for copy, pasted, and edited code that should have been encapsulated in a method.

  • This program should use fewer than 10 .java files. Each of these files should be (<300 lines).

  • Each method should be less than 30 lines. This INCLUDES comments, but not the method header. It is easier to read a function if it can all fit on one screen.

Code Clarity

  • YOU should be able to read, understand, and explain your own code to someone else a couple days after you wrote it.

    • No magic numbers
    • No methods written to just get the test cases to work

  • There needs to be a balance between no comments in the body of the methods and a comment for every line in the program. Either extreme will result in points off.

  • The file header should include instructions on how someone would use this program. To use the program, one would need to know the input file format. One would also need to know the command line arguments that should be passed to the program.

  • Use meaningful variable names. Loop iterators can be simple (i for integers, s for strings, n for numbers, etc.).

  • The clearest code examples will be anonymously shown in class.

  • The most obfuscated code examples will be anonymously shown in class with suggestions for improvement.

Submission

For this assignment, you are REQUIRED to submit all of the following files to Gradescope.

  • All the Java source files needed to run your program.
  • A video showing your GUI working.

Write your own code. We will be using a tool that finds similar code.

It is recommended that when talking with others about the assignment, do not write anything down.