Speaking as a student, I have always been frustrated by demos which depend on "behind the scenes setup". I think I have had a similar issue with some labs, but I do not remember any specific examples. The issue is that when I take the code and start playing with it, it does not work.
So I would advise caution with hiding things too much. Tha said, it's quite reasonable to "start in the middle" - where the "interesting stuff happens" and then go back over the preparatory steps later (when the student will have motivation to be interested in those steps). That said, you do not need to do anything fancy with a lab to refer to external things. A single load statement can execute arbitrarily complex code, and if you build everything in a target directory in ~addons (perhaps ~addons/labs/jhs-turtles/ or ~addons/jhs/turtle-lab/) then you can refer to files locally and expect them to mostly work when deployed through the addons sstem (if that is your eventul intent, once you are happy with our presentation). That said... looking at what you have done so far, I expect you'll have more than enough material to fill a book, before you are done. (Though much of it might be more infrastructure topics than "turtle" topics.) Thanks, -- Raul On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 1:08 PM, Brian Schott <[email protected]> wrote: > Bob, > > Are you suggesting that a Lab which includes a graphic like the one in > tgsjhs.ijs can be constructed? Are there any Labs you can suggest? I tried > the Plot lab but the plots are embedded in the text, not in a stationary > window/frame like in tgsjhs. Is there a Lab for vlite.ijs, for example? > > I had not really thought about a Lab for tgsjhs. I could use some ideas on > that. > > On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 12:16 PM, robert therriault <[email protected] > > > wrote: > > > Hi Brian, > > > > Slightly different approach, but you can do things behind the scenes by > > using the PREPARE keyword in a lab. You still need to get the learner to > do > > something to have the PREPARE'd statements execute, but it becomes less > > visible if you were already using the lab as a learning scaffold and > > executing specific instructions is just a matter of advancing the lab. > > > > Cheers, bob > > > > -- > (B=) > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
