The SILShack class blog - Fall 2013

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Pygame! Starpusher! Hacking!

1 - Install pygame. You should do this via

sudo apt-get install python-pygame

2 - Fork & Clone Silshack/starpusher. Go to http://github.com/silshack/starpusher and click fork. Then,

git clone https://github.com/{your-username}/starpusher.git

(Note that github automatically adds the origin and remotes for us!)

3 - Run the program.

cd starpusher
python starpusher.py

Play around to get a sense of what you can do.

4 - Read the program. In a new terminal:

cd starpusher 
nano starpusher.py

See if you can get a sense of what the program does and how. There are some helpful variations at the top. A hint: read the program from the bottom (what it does) then the functions or classes it uses (and how).

5 - Hack the program. Close starpusher. Make a new branch:

git branch hack-starpusher     # makes branch
git checkout hack-starpusher   # moves you to branch

Now, hackity hack! Some ideas:

• Change the frame rates or other variables at the top
• Change the images in the images dict (you can find and download new pngs or, try installing GIMP: sudo apt-get install gimp. It's a photoshop clone and will let you modify the images with filters, etc.)
• Change some of the rules of the game
• Make new levels. Edit starPusherLevels.txt to do this. See if you can figure out how to jump to a specific level.

Some reminders:

• If you want to undo your changes permanently, type: git reset --hard
• You can make new branches for different hacks! But you should git checkout master first, so the branch is off oc master, not your hackity hack.
• To merge changes back in (to combine image and frame rate hacks, for instance)
• Commit early and often. You can then git reset {commit ID} to undo those commits and re-commit them more intelligibly.

Assignment

Due Weds, but totally doable today: A post showing some of the hackity hacks you've made. Screenshots & code. Bonus points for walkthrough-quality work.

If we get to it: Contributor Guidelines

We need contributor guidelines for our class site. Who can contribute? What requirements do we place on them? Once we have these guidelines, we'll make everyone in class a committer to the repo!