Executing Hedy code step-per-per step

[fRedelaar]

Hi @Felienne , @OnnoEbbens and others!

For my bachelor's project, I am working on implementing new debugging tools into Hedy. A handy feature according to @OnnoEbbens would be to execute Hedy line per line. In this discussion, I want to share the design ideas that I have so far.

I am not sure if this idea can be executed during my project due to time constraints. However, I still think it would be very cool project! I wanted to share the designs to get some Feedback and maybe a new batch of bachelor students will implement this, or someone else, or maybe me.

Designs made so far (made with paint/photoshop): 3 images

The executing of lines step-per-step would work together with the newly created variable view (from this PR: click for a short video).

1. In the normal view, a new button is present. Like many IDEs, there's a button for running and debugging

2. When the 🐞 debugging button has been clicked, a step-per-step program appears. Three new buttons appear: next line, restart and stop. The line that is being focused on has a blue background (#2D6099)

3. Just like in regular IDEs, the highlighted line will be executed AFTER clicking the "⏩" button.

Please tell me if I misplaced this discussion and should place it somewhere else.

[TiBiBa]

I really like this idea! I do have some concerns as where to implement this feature, as with the current overload of adventures and functionalities it gives me a bit of a "kid in a candy store" feeling. Too many options to choice from that users lose the overview and have no clue where to start programming.

Maybe can implement this as a separate section within Hedy? There is also a student currently working on implementation Parsons problem into the Adventures. Also a really nice feature, but I'm not really sure if we should keep that in adventures or make it a separate flow children can follow. It might be nice to re-think our current UI and do a complete re-styling so we can better support new features like this. It might also be nice for teachers to enable/disable the debugging mode.

TLDR; I really like this idea! But we do have to think about the UI implementation to prevent the interface from getting too crowded.

[fRedelaar]

Thanks for the input Timon! I've spent some time creating a POC to see whether the idea is possible (functionality-wise), and it is! So that is nice.

When it comes to the implementation, I'm not sure what the best move would be. I agree with your suggestions such as abling/disabling it by teachers!