Programming Merlin
The heart of the
program is the Script window, where a sequential series of action
commands are placed in the text box. Commands may be typed in, each on a single
line, or they can be placed automatically by selecting and double clicking on
items from the Merlin Actions window or Sounds window (see
below). When the Play button is clicked, the script will be run. The Cancel
button will cancel the script. The Clear button will erase everything in
the Script window. Each action command will be highlighted in the Script
window as the character acts out the command. A clock in the upper right of the
main window will indicate the passage of time during the execution of the
script program. If the hide box
is checked, then all windows are hidden during the execution of the script. The
file button will open the Load/Save Script window where scripts can be
saved or loaded to or from a disk file. Click on a file name or type one in the
top text box. Then press load or save. Load puts the script into the Script
window text area. Double clicking on a file name does the same. Save writes the Script text to a file
on disk. After you write a 
script, save it for future use. The default
directory is “C:\Program Files\Merlin Programmer for Kids\scripts\ “. The default script extension is “.csp”. They
are ASCII text files and can be edited with programs such as Notepad, or
Wordpad, or other text editors.
The Merlin
Actions window shows all the actions that the loaded character can perform.
Not all characters have the same commands, so a script file that works with one
character may produce errors with another character. The commands for each 
character can be displayed by selecting the
characters name from the drop down box. General commands which affect all
characters are also listed under “All”. If the Show me item is
selected, then double clicking on any action command will cause the character
to perform the action and speak the word. In this manner, your child can see
what the character can do. If the Program
item is selected, double clicking on an action command 
will insert that command into the Script Window. Most of the commands are
standard, single word, Microsoft Agent character commands. However, some
commands require special action, and are detailed below.
.
Special Commands
Most command are preceded with the name of the character followed by “>” and a space, for example, “merlin> blink”. Below are some special commands that require extra information supplied by your child. Some are global (affecting all characters), so they are not prefaced with the character’s name. Type case (lower or upper) does not matter.
Pause (seconds) --- “(seconds)” should be replaced by a number. This is a pause before continuing program execution.
Interval (seconds) --- “(seconds)” should be replaced by a number. This is the time waited between action commands. Since some commands take a long time to complete, making the interval too short will interfere with subsequent commands. The default interval is 5 seconds between commands.
Sequential (true/false) --- “(true/false)” is replaced by true or false. The default is true. If true, then the commands are followed sequentially, one by one down the list of script lines. If false the commands are executed as fast as possible so that characters may be able to perform simultaneous actions. Look at the “lets_go_nuts.csp” script. There are three sequential statements in that script, two of them are “true”, and one is “false”. Try changing the false to true, and see that now each character does his do loop seperatly in the order of the script. Change it back to false and they go nuts!
Show (character) --- “(character)” should be replaced by the name of a character, e.g. “Merlin”, “Plany”, etc. The names can be seen in the Actions window. Multiple characters can be shown simultaneously. In a script if you refer to a character in a command, for example, “plany> tickle 2” and Plany was not previously visible, it will be shown automatically.
Hide (character) --- “(character)” should be replaced by the name of a character, e.g. “Merlin”, “Plany”, etc. The names can be seen in the Actions window.
Hide all --- Hides all characters.
Character> Speak (words) --- In the Script window, “(words)” should be replaced by any word or words or funny sounding letters! If you have created an audio file and placed it in the “wav” directory (this is done automatically when audio recording is done in Merlin Programmer for Kids), you can use this file for lip-syncing. Simply place the filename after the Speak command. For example, the following line will have Merlin lip-sync the speech in the wave file “my_voice.wav”.
Merlin> Speak my_voice.wav
Character> MoveTo X,Y --- In the Script window, the “X
,Y” must be replaced by screen
coordinates, for example, “132, 200”. At the bottom right of the main program
window the X,Y coordinates of the mouse cursor and the character are displayed
so that your child can drag t
he
character (mouse down on the character, press left button, and move) or move
the mouse cursor to a particular location on the screen where he/she wants the
character to move. He/she can then use those coordinates in the command.
Character> MoveTo random --- the computer will randomly choose the X,Y coordinates.
Character> MoveTo (character) --- In the Script window, the “(character) “ should be replaced by the name of a character, for example “merlin> moveto plany”. The first character will move to the second character’s position.
The MoveTo commands can have a speed parameter appended to them that will adjust the speed of the movements. The choices are slowest, slower, slow, medium, fast, faster, and fastest. For example, “merlin> moveto random fastest” would move Merlin to a random location very fast.
Character> StopMoving --- the character will stop moving ununconditionally..
Character> CharPos (X,Y) --- In the Script window, the “(X ,Y)” must be replaced by screen coordinates, for example, “132, 200”. This command quickly sets the character to a new location on the screen. If the character is hidden the repositioning will occur without showing the character.
Character> Tickle (size) --- In the Script window, the “(size)” must be replaced by a number indicating how big a wiggle the character will make.
Character> CharSize (W,H) --- In the Script
window, the “(W,H)” must be replaced by
desitred width, height of the character in pixels. The current and default settings
are reported when this command is double clicked in the Merlin Actions window with the Show
me item selected.
Report (seconds) --- In the Script window, the “(seconds)” should be replaced by a number of seconds. For those commands where the character counts down or waits for something to happen, the character typically repeats some phrase every number of seconds. This command should precede those commands to have an effect. The default is every 5 seconds.
Character> Waitfor Time=(H:M AM/PM) --- The “(H:M
AM/PM)” should be replaced by a valid time, as shown at the bottom left in the
information panel of the program. For example, “
Character> Waitfor Time=(minutes) --- In the Script
window, the “(minutes)” should be replaced by a number of minutes, which can be
fractional; for example “1.5”. The character will continually say “I am waiting
for….”, until the condition (countdown to zero) is met or exceeded. You can add
the word “quiet” to the end of the
command to stop the chatter, otherwise the character counts down every Report number of seconds (see Report command).
Character> Waitfor Key=(letter) --- In the Script
window, the “(letter)” should be replaced by the letter of a key on the keyboard.
The character will continually say “I am waiting for….”, until the condition
(pressing the key) is met or exceeded. You can add the word “quiet” to the end of the command to
stop the chatter, otherwise the character counts down every Report number of seconds (see Report command). Double clicking on the
character will cancel the wait and go to the next script statement.
Character> Waitfor Key=anykey --- The character
will continually say “I am waiting for any key to be pressed.”, until the
condition (pressing any key) is met. You can add the word “quiet” to the end of the command to stop the chatter, otherwise the
character counts down every Report
number of seconds (see Report
command). Double clicking on the character will cancel the wait and go to the
next script statement. You can test for the key pressed with the If
statement (see below).
Character> Waitfor Listen=anywords --- The
character will simply wait for something to be said. A small text box below the
character will indicate this. When the condition is met, that is, one of the
voice commands is spoken and understood by the character, execution will
continue. The character thinks the words that it is waiting for every Report number of seconds (see Report command). When it recognizes a word
or phrase then it speaks that word or phrase. You can add the word “quiet” to the end of the command to
stop the repeat. Double clicking on the character will cancel the wait and go
to the next script statement. You can test for the spoken word or words with
the If statement (see below). Voice commands that will be checked for
are introduced using the If statement. Speaking “cancel script” will
cancel the script.
Character> Waitfor Collide=(character) --- In the Script
window, the “(character)” should be replaced by the name of a character. The
character will wait for the two characters to overlap each other on the screen
before execution will continue. The character will continually say “I am
waiting for….”, until the condition (characters bump each other) is met or
exceeded. You can add the word “quiet”
to the end of the command to stop the chatter, otherwise the character counts
down every Report number of seconds
(see Report command). Double
clicking on the character will cancel the wait and go to the next script
statement. See the “collide.csp” script for a possible use of this command. In
that script Sequential is set to false otherwise the Waitfor Collide command is not executed
until after the characters stop moving. You would have drag the characters
together to satisfy the overlap condition.
Character> Waitfor Collide=anybody --- The character will wait for any other character to overlap it on the screen before execution will continue. The character will continually say “I am waiting for….”, until the condition (characters bump each other) is met or exceeded. You can add the word “quiet” to the end of the command to stop the chatter, otherwise the character counts down every Report number of seconds (see Report command). You can test which characters bumped with the If statement (see below).
Character> Waitfor GetOff=(character) --- In the Script
window, the “(character)” should be replaced by the name of a character. The
character will wait until the two characters are not overlapping on the screen
before execution will continue. The character will continually say “I am
waiting for….”, until the condition (characters to get off each other) is met
or exceeded. You can add the word “quiet”
to the end of the command to stop the chatter, otherwise the character counts
down every Report number of seconds
(see Report command). Double
clicking on the character will cancel the wait and go to the next script
statement. See the “collide.csp” script for a possible use of this command..
Do ….. Loop (number) --- These two commands are always used together. First insert the Do command in the Script window, then insert other commands, such as “Moveto random”, and finally insert the Loop (number) command, where “(number)” is replaced by the number of times the commands within the loop will be executed. For example,
Do
Moveto random
Speak I moved here!
This script will repeat the two commands within the loop 3 times.
If … then, elseif … then, else, endif --- These commands are used to check whether something has happened and then depending on the what happened to perform some commands. In the following example Merlin waits for a key press then depending on which key is pressed, the proper response is spoken. The commands between else and endif are executed if the key pressed was not a, b and c. You may put a do loop within the If statements. You may only have one If .. endif in a script.
There are three conditions that can be checked for with the If statement. They are
1. Key input. In the following example Merlin waits for a key and says something depending on which key was pressed.
Merlin> waitfor key=anykey
If key=a then
Merlin> speak the “a” key was pressed
Elseif key=b then
Merlin> speak the “b” key was pressed
Elseif key=c then
Merlin> speak the “c” key was pressed
Else
Merlin> speak some other key was pressed
Endif
2. Character collisions. In the following example Max and Peedy start jumping around on the screen and Merlin waits for either character to bump him; then depending on which character bumped him, the proper response is spoken.
interval 0
sequential false
do
max> moveto random
loop 50
do
peedy> moveto random
loop 50
merlin> waitfor collide=anybody
interval 1
sequential true
if collision=max and merlin then
merlin> speak max you bumped me!
max> speak sorry
elseif collision=peedy and merlin then
merlin> speak peedy you bumped me!
peedy> speak sorry
endif
3. Voice input. In the following example Merlin waits for something to be said. The words that he will wait for are the ones checked for in the If…endif statement. When Merlin recognizes one of the voice commands, the if statement will be executed and the response dictates what will follow.
interval
0
merlin>
charpos 500,500
show
merlin
merlin>
waitfor listen=anywords quiet
if
listen=hello then
merlin>
speak Hi to you, too!
elseif
listen=goodbye then
merlin>
speak Goodbye.
hide
merlin
elseif
listen=Where is Max? then
merlin>
speak He is coming now!
max>
charpos 600,100
max>
speak Hello guys!
max>
speak please press the "g" key and I will get tickled!
max>
waitfor key=g
max>
tickle 3
endif
See the scripts “if_collision.csp” , “if_listenup.csp” and “choose_guys.csp” for functional examples
Goto (Label) --- “(Label)” should be replaced by a special identifier (must be label1, label2, label3…label10) on any line; then, for example, the command Goto label1 will cause execution to jump to the line immediately following the label, label1. In the following script, Merlin waits for the spoken words goodbye or hello. If hello is spoken execution repeats because it jumps back to the line following label1, but if goodbye is spoken, execution eventually ends.
interval
1
label1
merlin>
waitfor listen=anywords quiet
if
listen=goodbye then
sound
drumroll
elseif
listen=hello then
sound
applause
goto
label1
endif
sound
blip
See “Goto.csp” for this functional script.
In general, double clicking on the character will cancel
script execution. Hitting <control><q> will quit the program
unconditionally. Right clicking on the character will open up a window and if
you click on “Quit” the program will close unconditionally. You can also cancel
a script from this window. Clicking on the character with the <shift> key
down will terminate the program. All of
these options to quit are to ensure that the program will not get stuck in the
running state if you do not want it to continue running!
Sound (wav file)
-- In the script window, the “(wav file)” should be replaced with one of
the sounds (such as “blip”) in the Sounds
Window. Your child can create these sounds by using the Sound recorder accessed
through the Menu bar, or the sound files can be any standard Microsoft
audio “wav” files that are placed in 
the
directory “C:\Program Files\Merlin Programmer for Kids\wav\ “.If the Program item is selected, the sound
command can be automatically inserted into the Script window by double
clicking on the sound name in the Sound Window. If the Hear Me item is
selected then your child can listen to the sounds before using them in the
script.
All parents know
that disk space is important. Merlin
Programmer for Kids shows available disk space for all drives at the bottom
right of the program in the 
information
panel. If your child double clicks on the panel, then the free space on each
drive of his/her computer will be displayed sequentially.
Finally, your kids can see their creation outside the programming environment by creating a short cut on the desktop that runs Merlin Programmer for Kids. Right click on the desktop, select create new shortcut. Then simply browse to find a script file in “C:\Program Files\Merlin Programmer for Kids\scripts\ “. Select that file and finish the shortcut. When your child double clicks on that shortcut icon on the desktop, the script will run on the desktop in the apparent absence of the programming environment, and it will look like an independent program has been produced. The script will end automatically. You can also double click on the script file in Explorer to run it.
That’s it! Merlin Programmer for Kids is a very simple program that will help young kids understand simple programming tasks. But hopefully the experience will prepare your kids for more challenging programming (and thinking) tasks.