2.4 Scr0140: arithmetic operators  (Page 4/7)

Four variables

The leftmost panel shows that four variables have been created. Because you can't read the names of those variables, I will list them here:

• LeftOperand
• RightOperand
• Sum
• Diff

You can barely see that the checkboxes next to all four variables have been checked. As you learned in an earlier module, checking this box causes avariable to be displayed in the white Stage area on the right. Thus you can see all four variables being displayed in the upper left corner of theStage.

A button

Skipping to the area immediately below the Stage, you can (almost) see that a button has been added to the program. That button has been selected in Image 1 , making it possible to drag blocks into the center panel that controls thebehavior of the button.

Two scripts in the center panel

Although you can't read the details in Image 1 , you can see that there are two scripts showing in the center panel. (I will show you a full-size screen shot of the center panel later in Image 2 .)

For now, suffice it to say that the top script initializes the values stored in all four variables when theuser clicks the green flag in the upper right of Image 1 . The bottom script in the center panel defines the behavior of the program when the userclicks the button in the Stage area.

Variables with sliders

If you look carefully, you can tell that the top two variables that are displayed in the Stage area look different from the bottom two variables.This is because a slider has been assigned to each of the top two variables (see Image 5 ) . This makes it possible for the user to manually set the values stored in each of these two variables.

How to create a slider

To create a slider for a variable, right click on the display of the variable in the Stage area and select slider in the popup menu that appears.

Once you have caused a slider to appear with the variable display, you can right-click on the variable display again and select set slider min and max in the popup menu to specify the range of the slider. This will cause asimple dialog box to appear into which you can enter the minimum value and the maximum value and then click an OK button. In this program, I have bothsliders set to a minimum value of -10 and a maximum value of +10.

Full-size view of the center panel

Image 2 shows a full-size view of the center panel after having selected the button icon in the area immediately below the Stage in Image 1 .

Figure

Image 2. full-size view of the center panel.

Initialize the variable values to zero

As I mentioned earlier, the top script in Image 2 sets the value of each of the four variables to zero when the user clicks the green flag. The codein that script should be completely familiar to you by now and no explanation should be necessary.

Define the behavior of the button

The bottom script in Image 2 defines the behavior of the program when the button is clicked. Basically, that code says to set the value of thevariable named Sum to the sum of the contents of the two variables named LeftOperand and RightOperand and to set the value of the variable named Diff to the value of the left operand minus the value of the right operand.