Where does print() print to?

Jack_Blue

Hi!

I usually program with Python, using the Pycharm IDE (please no lectures about the laziness of using an IDE; I like it!).

I fix bugs by putting print() statements throughout the section of code that I'm looking at, to see what the values of each list and variable are at every stage in the program, and so work out where the program isn't functioning the way I want it to.

I want to be able to do this with Fuze4, but can't, because I don't know where print() prints out to! Sometimes the error prompts are helpful, but often they don't make much sense (e.g. 'unrecognised type: 4' - I'm creating another post to ask what that means).

If it's any help, I have a Nintendo Switch Lite.

pianofire

print() like all draw commands by default prints to the framebuffer which is a buffer used to hold the screen contents.

This is written to the screen when update() is called. This is used to reduce the amount of screen updates and to ensure that programs run at the same speed.

Update() will only refresh the screen every 1/60th of a second so that your program will run at 60fps (the frame rate will drop if you do too much work between update calls)

pianofire

There is a good debug function here: https://fuzearena.com/forum/topic/123/debugger-support/4

spt games

I think "Unrecognised type" is when Fuze cannot convert your data into the string type needed by the print() function. I've encountered this when trying to print out a file handle (see "File Handling" commands in Fuze Help). It crashes the program.

pianofire

I have just had a look and type 4 seems to be a void (or nil pointer) which basically means an undefined or unassigned value

Jack_Blue

Using print() has never printed anything to my screen!

PickleCatStars

I’ve just been making all my variables global and drawtext() ing them right at the end before my update(), otherwise it seems they just got covered up. In 2d, you could do the same with print(), probably, but it might be smarter to write a debug() function with a list that you just add whatever you want to that all gets printed out right at the end..

pianofire

@Jack_Blue On it's own it doesn't:

try the following:

loop
  clear() 
  print("Hello World")
  update()
repeat

clear() - clears the frame buffer

print() - prints a message to the framebuffer

update() - outputs the framebuffer to the screen every 1/60 th of a second

Jack_Blue

Thanks!

What if I want to do this:

 loop
      clear()
      for i = 0 to 100 loop
           print(i)
      repeat
      update()
 repeat

Not all of this will be able to fit on the screen at once!

Martin

@Jack_Blue said in Where does print() print to?:

What if I want to do this:

That will work fine

pianofire

So you can use printat(x,y, value) to print at a particular screen location:

 loop
      clear()
      for i = 0 to 100 loop
           printat( i % 10 * 5, int ( i / 10), i)
      repeat
      update()
 repeat

petermeisenstein

@Jack_Blue pycharm is good so print does the same like in Python but its more like the print from python 3 and you have to use update()
To update your screen.