JuggleGraph tips

gistfile1.py

# let's start with this:

siteswaplist = []
while len(siteswap) > 0:
    if siteswap[0] == "a":
        siteswaplist.append(10)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]
    if siteswap[0] == "b":
        siteswaplist.append(11)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]
    if siteswap[0] == "c":
        siteswaplist.append(12)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]
    if siteswap[0] == "d":
        siteswaplist.append(13)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]
    if siteswap[0] == "e":
        siteswaplist.append(14)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]
    if siteswap[0] == "f":
        siteswaplist.append(15)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]
    if siteswap[0] == "g":
        siteswaplist.append(16)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]
    if siteswap[0] == "h":
        siteswaplist.append(17)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]
    if siteswap[0] == "0" or siteswap[0] == "1" or siteswap[0] == "2" or siteswap[0] == "3" or siteswap[0] == "4" or siteswap[0] == "5" or siteswap[0] == "6" or siteswap[0] == "7" or siteswap[0] == "8" or siteswap[0] == "9":
        siteswaplist.append(int(siteswap[0]))
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]

# there's a few things wrong here.
# first, if you've got a big load of if-statements and only one will be true,
# then you should use else-if-statements because otherwise all the ones that
# come after the true one get processed too, which wastes the computer's time.
# in python, you can do that with elif

# example:

siteswaplist = []
while len(siteswap) > 0:
    if siteswap[0] == "a":
        siteswaplist.append(10)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]
    elif siteswap[0] == "b":
        siteswaplist.append(11)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]
    elif siteswap[0] == "c":
        siteswaplist.append(12)
        siteswap = siteswap[1:]

# ... and so on.

# secondly, that huge if-statement at the bottom (the one where you check
# if the character is a digit) can be reduced to:

if siteswap[0].isdigit():

# python is pretty great for that kind of jazz

# thirdly, you don't need all the different if-statements for each individual
# letter case. it turns out that characters are represented in-memory as numbers,
# and you can use the ord() function to find out what those numbers are.
# e.g. ord("a") is 97. Even more fortuitous is that the numbers are assigned in
# alphabetical order, so ord("b") is 98, ord("c") is 99, and so on.

# in addition to all this goodness, you can compare strings in if-statements, so
# it is possible to turn that enormous sequence of if-statments into just:

if "a" <= siteswap[0] <= "h":
    siteswaplist.append(ord(siteswap[0]) - 87)
    siteswap = siteswap[1:]
elif siteswap[0].isdigit():
    siteswaplist.append(int(siteswap[0]))
    siteswap = siteswap[1:]

# lastly, rather than removing the first character from the siteswap string when
# you're done, you can just iterate over the characters in the string usinng a
# for loop. so the whole thing becomes:

siteswaplist = []
for s in siteswap:
    if "a" <= s <= "h":
        siteswaplist.append(ord(s) - 87)
    elif s.isdigit():
        siteswaplist.append(int(s))

# see how much smaller and easier-to-read that is?








# now to this bit:

count = 0 #takes the siteswap list and iterates it 10 times
while count < 80:
    sslcount = 0
    while sslcount < siteswaplength:
        siteswaplist.append(siteswaplist[sslcount])
        sslcount = sslcount + 1
    count = count + 1


# for starters, you're actually looping the list 80 times.
# but most importantly, you can do this using the .extend method of list objects.
# .extend takes a list and adds all its elements to the end.
# e.g.

cheese = [1,2,3]
cheese.extend([4,5,6])
print(cheese)
# => [1,2,3,4,5,6]

# also, if you want to do something n times, where n doesn't depend on what happens
# while you're doing that something, then it is far easier and more readable to
# use a for-loop. So I would change your code to:

for i in range(10): # or 80, whatever
    siteswaplist.extend(siteswaplist[:siteswaplength])







# as for the color assiging stuff... I'm sorry but that's just a big mess and
# deserves to be completely rethought.
# I will say, however, that something like:

while siteswaplist[count] == 0 or colorlist[count] == "blue" or colorlist[count] == "red" or colorlist[count] == "yellow" or colorlist[count] == "green":

# can be replaced by:

while siteswaplist[count] == 0 or colorlist[count] in ("blue", "red", "yellow", "green"):




# so let's rethink the problem of assiging colors to throws.
# first off, what have we got so far?
#    siteswaplist - a bunch of numbers representing throw heights
#    ballcount - how many balls are involved in the siteswap

# each ball needs a different color so let's create a list of 9 colors to begin

colors = ["red", "blue", "yellow", "green", "pink", "purple", "orange", "black", "gold"]

# now we can model each ball as just being a color:

balls = colors[:ballcount]

# now we need to assign balls to throws, rather than colors. That's easy peasy when
# we understand how siteswap works. Just take a ball B and a throw numbered T with
# height H, then assign B to T and then to the throw numbered T+H with height H2, and
# then the throw numbered T+H+H2 and so on and so on.

# we'll modify siteswaplist in place, replacing throw heights with (height, ball)
# tuples to represent an assigned ball, but leave throws with height 0 alone,
# since they don't involve balls.

# so iterate over our balls:
for ball in balls:
    # start at throw 0
    throw = 0
    # skip over any throws that have already been assigned a ball, or are height 0,
    while siteswaplist[throw] == 0 or type(siteswaplist[throw]) is tuple:
        throw  = throw + 1

    # now siteswaplist[throw] is the height of the first unassigned throw
    while throw < len(siteswaplist):
        height = siteswaplist[throw]
        # so let's assign the ball to this throw
        siteswaplist[throw] = (height, ball)
        # now we increment throw by height and assign the ball to that throw and so on
        throw = throw + height


# and that's it.

# now the bit to draw the graph looks like this:

for i in range(len(siteswaplist)):
    if siteswaplist[i] != 0:
        # not 0 so we know it's a tuple (given a well-formed siteswap)
        throw_height, ball_color = siteswaplist[i]
        xy = i*20, 800+(throw_height**2)*5, i*20+throw_height*20, 800-(throw_height**2)*5
        canvas.create_arc(xy, start=0, extent=180,  width=3, outline=ball_color)
        canvas.create_text(i*20-2, 810, anchor=W, text=throw_height)