Simple scripting language and IDE for art and animation, designed to help kids learn basic coding and logic.

Development Setup

After cloning run

npm i
npm run-script start:dev

And then open browser to http://localhost:5000/

Take a look at our examples: https://github.com/jasonbyrne/L2script/tree/master/examples

Scripting in L2

Basic Concepts

Canvas

L2Script gives you a 640x640 canvas to design within

Data Types

string

Any text data that you want to save for later use is a string.

object

Any visual element that you want to create is an object. This is typically a shape.

Commands

Create new object

object background = new rectangle

The background part is whatever name you want to give your object.

The rectangle part can be equal to text, rectangle, circle, line, polygon

Create a string

string bgcolor = blue

Set size of our object

size background to 640,640`

The first number is the width and the second number is the height.

Set position of our object

move background to 0,0`

The first number is our x coordinate, the second number is our y coordinate. The numbering starts from the top left, so point 0,0 is the top-left corner and point 640,640 is the bottom-right corner.

Set object color

paint background blue

Set points of a polygon

With certain shapes, like a polygon, you want to be able to set an arbitrary number of points.

object someRhombus = new polygon
  paint red
  points 150,50 250,50 300,100 200,100

Set outline

This command will draw an outline around an object.

outline background black 1

The black can be any color the 1 can be any number, which is the size of the border.

Clone another object

This is useful to duplciate items to keep from typing them over and over

object newName = clone objectToCopy

Avoid typing name over and over

You can use the with property to set the object you're talking about. Then on the next lines do a space (or multiple spaces) indent. You can skip typing the name.

Example:

with sky
  paint blue
  size to 640,300
  move to 0,0

You can also do this without using the with property if you refer to that object in the previous line, again using the space indent.

Example:

paint sky blue
   size to 640,300

Or:

object sun = new circle
   paint orange
   size to 100,100
   move to 0,0

Pause before continuing

Use wait to pause. Example:

wait 500

The above pauses 500 milliseconds, but you can also specify seconds:

wait 2 seconds

Move something relative to its current position

move background by 10,10

Or change the size by a certain amount

Increase it with

size background by 10,5

You can also use negative numbers to shrink it

size background by -5,-5

Write text

This only works for text type boxes

object hello = new text
  write Hello World!
  move to 10,10

Set Font Size

This only works for text type boxes

object hello = new text
  write Hello World!
  move to 10,10
  fontSize 24

Go to line

This lets you go to a certain number

goto line 12

Use a String Variable

Earlier, we saved a string variable like this

string bgColor = blue

You can later use this value in another line with the % character

paint box %bgColor%

System Variables

There are certain variables that are pre-programmed that you can use out of the box

• TIME = Current time
• DATE = Current date

with clock
  write %TIME%

Print

Writes out text to the console. This can be useful for printing variables for debugging.

print %bgColor

Remove an item

Delete an item entirely (can not be brought back)

string jason = new text
  write Jason was here!
wait 2 seconds
remove jason

Reset all

Clear off the entire canvas, removing all items and starting fresh. Useful if you want to change scenes.

reset

End processing

If you want to stop processing any further commands and end the program use the end command

end