Parametric Grids

The effect of drawing a single line tends to be minimal and it is more likely that many lines will be needed to produce a required effect. In this section we look at a strategy for doing this that extends the repetition facility provided by loops.

Another name for arguments is parameters and parametric graphics is a common feature of vector graphics applications. Using this approach a drawing task is abstracted (taken out) from the main part of the program and done by passing arguments to a function that draws the graphic. Many similar objects can be drawn with different sizes, locations, colours, and other properties determined by values passed to arguments.

Initially we experiment with parametric grids and to do this with a minimum of work the initial step is to set up a basic grid drawing program for testing them out. Optionally the basic structure can be extended to produce actual drawings that include grids. Listing CC.2 shows the outline:

  /* set window size and drawing environment */

  static final int WIDTH = 900; 
  static final int HEIGHT = 600; 

  void setup() {
     size(WIDTH, HEIGHT); // default environment
     doDrawing();
  }
 
  /* draw the drawing */
 
  void doDrawing() {
     // charcole grey background, again!
     background(0.25 * 255);
     // white grid lines
     stroke(255);
     // one pixel wide
     strokeWeight(1);
    
     // draw a grid with number of cells xCells * yCells
     int xCells = 13;
     int yCells = 19;
     drawGrid(0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT, xCells, yCells, true);
    
  }

  void drawGrid(int left, int top, int width, int height, int  xCells,
        int yCells, boolean drawOutline){
    
  }

Listing CC.2


As it stands the outline will compile and run but does nothing except opening a window with a grey background. Sections of functionality will be factored off using calls to drawGrid()to draw as many different grids as we require. Such power should be used carefully so the first thing is to decide exactly what we want a drawGrid() function to do and make sure all drawGrids variations we write do just that.

Arguments left and top are where the top-left corner of the grid will be positioned. Width and height specify the size of the grid in pixels, xCells and yCells the number of areas the grid is divided into in the horizontal and vertical directions respectively. Cells are to be made to fit the grid exactly by distributing any odd pixels evenly across cell widths and heights. If draw outline is passed true a one pixel wide line is to be drawn around the grid within the size given. All this sounds complicated but is actually very easy when we divide up the work using functions.