turtlestitch/morphic.txt

	morphic.js

	a lively Web-GUI
	inspired by Squeak

	written by Jens Mönig
	jens@moenig.org

	Copyright (C) 2015 by Jens Mönig

	this documentation last changed: June 26, 2015

	This file is part of Snap!.

	Snap! is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
	it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
	published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of
	the License, or (at your option) any later version.

	This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
	GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

	You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
	along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.


    documentation contents
    ----------------------
    I. inheritance hierarchy
    II. object definition toc
    III. yet to implement
    IV. open issues
    V. browser compatibility
    VI. the big picture
    VII. programming guide
        (1) setting up a web page
            (a) single world
            (b) multiple worlds
            (c) an application
        (2) manipulating morphs
        (3) events
            (a) mouse events
            (b) context menu
            (c) dragging
            (d) dropping
            (e) keyboard events
            (f) resize event
            (g) combined mouse-keyboard events
            (h) text editing events
        (4) stepping
        (5) creating new kinds of morphs
        (6) development and user modes
        (7) turtle graphics
        (8) damage list housekeeping
        (9) minifying morphic.js
    VIII. acknowledgements
    IX. contributors


    I. hierarchy
    -------------
    the following tree lists all constructors hierarchically,
    indentation indicating inheritance. Refer to this list to get a
    contextual overview:

    Color
    Node
        Morph
            BlinkerMorph
                CursorMorph
            BouncerMorph*
            BoxMorph
                InspectorMorph
                MenuMorph
                MouseSensorMorph*
                SpeechBubbleMorph
            CircleBoxMorph
                SliderButtonMorph
                SliderMorph
            ColorPaletteMorph
                GrayPaletteMorph
            ColorPickerMorph
            FrameMorph
                ScrollFrameMorph
                    ListMorph
                StringFieldMorph
                WorldMorph
            HandleMorph
            HandMorph
            PenMorph
            ShadowMorph
            StringMorph
            TextMorph
            TriggerMorph
                MenuItemMorph
    Point
    Rectangle


    II. toc
    -------
    the following list shows the order in which all constructors are
    defined. Use this list to locate code in this document:


    Global settings
    Global functions

    Color
    Point
    Rectangle
    Node
    Morph
    ShadowMorph
    HandleMorph
    PenMorph
    ColorPaletteMorph
    GrayPaletteMorph
    ColorPickerMorph
    BlinkerMorph
    CursorMorph
    BoxMorph
    SpeechBubbleMorph
    CircleBoxMorph
    SliderButtonMorph
    SliderMorph
    MouseSensorMorph*
    InspectorMorph
    MenuMorph
    StringMorph
    TextMorph
    TriggerMorph
    MenuItemMorph
    FrameMorph
    ScrollFrameMorph
    ListMorph
    StringFieldMorph
    BouncerMorph*
    HandMorph
    WorldMorph

    * included only for demo purposes


    III. yet to implement
    ---------------------
    - keyboard support for scroll frames and lists
    - virtual keyboard support for Android and IE


    IV. open issues
    ----------------
    - blurry shadows don't work well in Chrome


    V. browser compatibility
    ------------------------
    I have taken great care and considerable effort to make morphic.js
    runnable and appearing exactly the same on all current browsers
    available to me:

    - Firefox for Windows
    - Firefox for Mac
    - Chrome for Windows (blurry shadows have some issues)
    - Chrome for Mac
    - Safari for Windows
    - safari for Mac
    - Safari for iOS (mobile)
    - IE for Windows
    - Opera for Windows
    - Opera for Mac


    VI. the big picture
    -------------------
    Morphic.js is completely based on Canvas and JavaScript, it is just
    Morphic, nothing else. Morphic.js is very basic and covers only the
    bare essentials:

        * a stepping mechanism (a time-sharing multiplexer for lively
          user interaction ontop of a single OS/browser thread)
        * progressive display updates (only dirty rectangles are
          redrawn in each display cycle)
        * a tree structure
        * a single World per Canvas element (although you can have
          multiple worlds in multiple Canvas elements on the same web
          page)
        * a single Hand per World (but you can support multi-touch
          events)
        * a single text entry focus per World

    In its current state morphic.js doesn't support Transforms (you
    cannot rotate Morphs), but with PenMorph there already is a simple
    LOGO-like turtle that you can use to draw onto any Morph it is
    attached to. I'm planning to add special Morphs that support these
    operations later on, but not for every Morph in the system.
    Therefore these additions ("sprites" etc.) are likely to be part of
    other libraries ("microworld.js") in separate files.

    the purpose of morphic.js is to provide a malleable framework that
    will let me experiment with lively GUIs for my hobby horse, which
    is drag-and-drop, blocks based programming languages. Those things
    (BYOB4 - http://byob.berkeley.edu) will be written using morphic.js
    as a library.


    VII. programming guide
    ----------------------
    Morphic.js provides a library for lively GUIs inside single HTML
    Canvas elements. Each such canvas element functions as a "world" in
    which other visible shapes ("morphs") can be positioned and
    manipulated, often directly and interactively by the user. Morphs
    are tree nodes and may contain any number of submorphs ("children").

    All things visible in a morphic World are morphs themselves, i.e.
    all text rendering, blinking cursors, entry fields, menus, buttons,
    sliders, windows and dialog boxes etc. are created with morphic.js
    rather than using HTML DOM elements, and as a consequence can be
    changed and adjusted by the programmer regardless of proprietary
    browser behavior.

    Each World has an - invisible - "Hand" resembling the mouse cursor
    (or the user's finger on touch screens) which handles mouse events,
    and may also have a keyboardReceiver to handle key events.

    The basic idea of Morphic is to continuously run display cycles and
    to incrementally update the screen by only redrawing those  World
    regions    which have been "dirtied" since the last redraw. Before
    each shape is processed for redisplay it gets the chance to perform
    a "step" procedure, thus allowing for an illusion of concurrency.


    (1) setting up a web page
    -------------------------
    Setting up a web page for Morphic always involves three steps:
    adding one or more Canvas elements, defining one or more worlds,
    initializing and starting the main loop.


    (a) single world
    -----------------
    Most commonly you will want your World to fill the browsers's whole
    client area. This default situation is easiest and most straight
    forward.

    example html file:

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
        <head>
            <title>Morphic!</title>
            <script type="text/javascript" src="morphic.js"></script>
            <script type="text/javascript">
                var world;

                window.onload = function () {
                    world = new WorldMorph(
                        document.getElementById('world'));
                    setInterval(loop, 50);
                };

                function loop() {
                    world.doOneCycle();
                }
            </script>
        </head>
        <body>
            <canvas id="world" tabindex="1" width="800" height="600">
                <p>Your browser doesn't support canvas.</p>
            </canvas>
        </body>
    </html>

    if you use ScrollFrames or otherwise plan to support mouse wheel
    scrolling events, you might also add the following inline-CSS
    attribute to the Canvas element:

        style="position: absolute;"

    which will prevent the World to be scrolled around instead of the
    elements inside of it in some browsers.


    (b) multiple worlds
    -------------------
    If you wish to create a web page with more than one world, make
    sure to prevent each world from auto-filling the whole page and
    include    it in the main loop. It's also a good idea to give each
    world its own tabindex:

    example html file:

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
        <head>
            <title>Morphic!</title>
            <script type="text/javascript" src="morphic.js"></script>
            <script type="text/javascript">
                var world1, world2;

                window.onload = function () {
                    world1 = new WorldMorph(
                        document.getElementById('world1'), false);
                    world2 = new WorldMorph(
                        document.getElementById('world2'), false);
                    setInterval(loop, 50);
                };

                function loop() {
                    world1.doOneCycle();
                    world2.doOneCycle();
                }
            </script>
        </head>
        <body>
            <p>first world:</p>
            <canvas id="world1" tabindex="1" width="600" height="400">
                <p>Your browser doesn't support canvas.</p>
            </canvas>
            <p>second world:</p>
            <canvas id="world2" tabindex="2" width="400" height="600">
                <p>Your browser doesn't support canvas.</p>
            </canvas>
        </body>
    </html>


    (c) an application
    -------------------
    Of course, most of the time you don't want to just plain use the
    standard Morhic World "as is" out of the box, but write your own
    application (something like Scratch!) in it. For such an
    application you'll create your own morph prototypes, perhaps
    assemble your own "window frame" and bring it all to life in a
    customized World state. the following example creates a simple
    snake-like mouse drawing game.

    example html file:

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
        <head>
            <title>touch me!</title>
            <script type="text/javascript" src="morphic.js"></script>
            <script type="text/javascript">
                var worldCanvas, sensor;

                window.onload = function () {
                    var x, y, w, h;

                    worldCanvas = document.getElementById('world');
                    world = new WorldMorph(worldCanvas);
                    world.isDevMode = false;
                    world.color = new Color();

                    w = 100;
                    h = 100;

                    x = 0;
                    y = 0;

                    while ((y * h) < world.height()) {
                        while ((x * w) < world.width()) {
                            sensor = new MouseSensorMorph();
                            sensor.setPosition(new Point(x * w, y * h));
                            sensor.alpha = 0;
                            sensor.setExtent(new Point(w, h));
                            world.add(sensor);
                            x += 1;
                        }
                        x = 0;
                        y += 1;
                    }
                    setInterval(loop, 50);
                };

                function loop() {
                    world.doOneCycle();
                }
            </script>
        </head>
        <body bgcolor='black'>
            <canvas id="world" width="800" height="600">
                <p>Your browser doesn't support canvas.</p>
            </canvas>
        </body>
    </html>

    To get an idea how you can craft your own custom morph prototypes
    I've included two examples which should give you an idea how to add
    properties, override inherited methods and use the stepping
    mechanism for "livelyness":

        BouncerMorph
        MouseSensorMorph

    For the sake of sharing a single file I've included those examples
    in morphic.js itself. Usually you'll define your additions in a
    separate file and keep morphic.js untouched.


    (2) manipulating morphs
    -----------------------
    There are many methods to programmatically manipulate morphs. Among
    the most important and common ones among all morphs are the
    following nine:

    * hide()
    * show()

    * setPosition(aPoint)
    * setExtent(aPoint)
    * setColor(aColor)

    * add(submorph)            - attaches submorph ontop
    * addBack(submorph)        - attaches submorph underneath

    * fullCopy()               - duplication
    * destroy()                - deletion


    (3) events
    ----------
    All user (and system) interaction is triggered by events, which are
    passed on from the root element - the World - to its submorphs. The
    World contains a list of system (browser) events it reacts to in its

        initEventListeners()

    method. Currently there are

        - mouse
        - drop
        - keyboard
        - (window) resize

    events.

    These system events are dispatched within the morphic World by the
    World's Hand and its keyboardReceiver (usually the active text
    cursor).


    (a) mouse events:
    -----------------
    The Hand dispatches the following mouse events to relevant morphs:

        mouseDownLeft
        mouseDownRight
        mouseClickLeft
        mouseClickRight
        mouseDoubleClick
        mouseEnter
        mouseLeave
        mouseEnterDragging
        mouseLeaveDragging
        mouseMove
        mouseScroll

    If you wish your morph to react to any such event, simply add a
    method of the same name as the event, e.g:

        MyMorph.prototype.mouseMove = function(pos) {};

    All of these methods have as optional parameter a Point object
    indicating the current position of the Hand inside the World's
    coordinate system. The

        mouseMove(pos, button)

    event method has an additional optional parameter indicating the
    currently pressed mouse button, which is either 'left' or 'right'.
    You can use this to let users interact with 3D environments.

    Events may be "bubbled" up a morph's owner chain by calling

        this.escalateEvent(functionName, arg)

    in the event handler method's code.

    Likewise, removing the event handler method will render your morph
    passive to the event in question.


    (b) context menu:
    -----------------
    By default right-clicking (or single-finger tap-and-hold) on a morph
    also invokes its context menu (in addition to firing the
    mouseClickRight event). A morph's context menu can be customized by
    assigning a Menu instance to its

        customContextMenu

    property, or altogether suppressed by overriding its inherited

        contextMenu()

    method.


    (c) dragging:
    -------------
    Dragging a morph is initiated when the left mouse button is pressed,
    held and the mouse is moved.

    You can control whether a morph is draggable by setting its

        isDraggable

    property either to false or true. If a morph isn't draggable itself
    it will pass the pick-up request up its owner chain. This lets you
    create draggable composite morphs like Windows, DialogBoxes,
    Sliders etc.

    Sometimes it is desireable to make "template" shapes which cannot be
    moved themselves, but from which instead duplicates can be peeled
    off. This is especially useful for building blocks in construction
    kits, e.g. the MIT-Scratch palette. Morphic.js lets you control this
    functionality by setting the

        isTemplate

    property flag to true for any morph whose "isDraggable" property is
    turned off. When dragging such a Morph the hand will instead grab
    a duplicate of the template whose "isDraggable" flag is true and
    whose "isTemplate" flag is false, in other words: a non-template.

    When creating a copy from a template, the copy's

        reactToTemplateCopy

    is invoked, if it is present.

    Dragging is indicated by adding a drop shadow to the morph in hand.
    If a morph follows the hand without displaying a drop shadow it is
    merely being moved about without changing its parent (owner morph),
    e.g. when "dragging" a morph handle to resize its owner, or when
    "dragging" a slider button.

    Right before a morph is picked up its

        prepareToBeGrabbed(handMorph)

    method is invoked, if it is present. Immediately after the pick-up
    the former parent's

        reactToGrabOf(grabbedMorph)

    method is called, again only if it exists.

    Similar to events, these  methods are optional and don't exist by
    default. For a simple example of how they can be used to adjust
    scroll bars in a scroll frame please have a look at their
    implementation in FrameMorph.


    (d) dropping:
    -------------
    Dropping is triggered when the left mouse button is either pressed
    or released while the Hand is dragging a morph.

    Dropping a morph causes it to become embedded in a new owner morph.
    You can control this embedding behavior by setting the prospective
    drop target's

        acceptsDrops

    property to either true or false, or by overriding its inherited

        wantsDropOf(aMorph)

    method.

    Right after a morph has been dropped its

        justDropped(handMorph)

    method is called, and its new parent's

        reactToDropOf(droppedMorph, handMorph)

    method is invoked, again only if each method exists.

    Similar to events, these  methods are optional and by default are
    not present in morphs by default (watch out for inheritance,
    though!). For a simple example of how they can be used to adjust
    scroll bars in a scroll frame please have a look at their
    implementation in FrameMorph.

    Drops of image elements from outside the world canvas are dispatched as

        droppedImage(aCanvas, name)
        droppedSVG(anImage, name)

    events to interested Morphs at the mouse pointer. If you want you Morph
    to e.g. import outside images you can add the droppedImage() and / or the
    droppedSVG() methods to it. The parameter passed to the event handles is
    a new offscreen canvas element representing a copy of the original image
    element which can be directly used, e.g. by assigning it to another
    Morph's image property. In the case of a dropped SVG it is an image
    element (not a canvas), which has to be rasterized onto a canvas before
    it can be used. The benefit of handling SVGs as image elements is that
    rasterization can be deferred until the destination scale is known, taking
    advantage of SVG's ability for smooth scaling. If instead SVGs are to be
    rasterized right away, you can set the

        MorphicPreferences.rasterizeSVGs

    preference to <true>. In this case dropped SVGs also trigger the
    droppedImage() event with a canvas containing a rasterized version of the
    SVG.

    The same applies to drops of audio or text files from outside the world
    canvas.

    Those are dispatched as

        droppedAudio(anAudio, name)
        droppedText(aString, name)

    events to interested Morphs at the mouse pointer.

    if none of the above content types can be determined, the file contents
    is dispatched as an ArrayBuffer to interested Morphs:

        droppedBinary(anArrayBuffer, name)


    (e) keyboard events
    -------------------
    The World dispatches the following key events to its active
    keyboardReceiver:

        keypress
        keydown
        keyup

    Currently the only morph which acts as keyboard receiver is
    CursorMorph, the basic text editing widget. If you wish to add
    keyboard support to your morph you need to add event handling
    methods for

        processKeyPress(event)
        processKeyDown(event)
        processKeyUp(event)

    and activate them by assigning your morph to the World's

        keyboardReceiver

    property.

    Note that processKeyUp() is optional and doesn't have to be present
    if your morph doesn't require it.


    (f) resize event
    ----------------
    The Window resize event is handled by the World and allows the
    World's extent to be adjusted so that it always completely fills
    the browser's visible page. You can turn off this default behavior
    by setting the World's

        useFillPage

    property to false.

    Alternatively you can also initialize the World with the
    useFillPage switch turned off from the beginning by passing the
    false value as second parameter to the World's constructor:

        world = new World(aCanvas, false);

    Use this when creating a web page with multiple Worlds.

    if "useFillPage" is turned on the World dispatches an

        reactToWorldResize(newBounds)

    events to all of its children (toplevel only), allowing each to
    adjust to the new World bounds by implementing a corresponding
    method, the passed argument being the World's new dimensions after
    completing the resize. By default, the "reactToWorldResize" Method
    does not exist.

    Example:

    Add the following method to your Morph to let it automatically
    fill the whole World, but leave a 10 pixel border uncovered:

        MyMorph.prototype.reactToWorldResize = function (rect) {
            this.changed();
            this.bounds = rect.insetBy(10);
            this.drawNew();
            this.changed();
        };


    (g) combined mouse-keyboard events
    ----------------------------------
    Occasionally you'll want an object to react differently to a mouse
    click or to some other mouse event while the user holds down a key
    on the keyboard. Such "shift-click", "ctl-click", or "alt-click"
    events can be implemented by querying the World's

        currentKey

    property inside the function that reacts to the mouse event. This
    property stores the keyCode of the key that's currently pressed.
    Once the key is released by the user it reverts to null.


    (h) text editing events
    -----------------------
    Much of Morphic's "liveliness" comes out of allowing text elements
    (instances of either single-lined StringMorph or multi-lined TextMorph)
    to be directly manipulated and edited by users. This requires other
    objects which may have an interest in the text element's state to react
    appropriately. Therefore text elements and their manipulators emit
    a stream of events, mostly by "bubbling" them up the text element's
    owner chain. Text elements' parents are notified about the following
    events:

    Whenever the user presses a key on the keyboard while a text element
    is being edited, a

        reactToKeystroke(event)

    is escalated up its parent chain, the "event" parameter being the
    original one received by the World.

    Once the user has completed the edit, the following events are
    dispatched:

        accept() - <enter> was pressed on a single line of text
        cancel() - <esc> was pressed on any text element

    Note that "accept" only gets triggered by single-line texte elements,
    as the <enter> key is used to insert line breaks in multi-line
    elements. Therefore, whenever a text edit is terminated by the user
    (accepted, cancelled or otherwise),

        reactToEdit(StringOrTextMorph)

    is triggered.

    If the MorphicPreference's

        useSliderForInput

    setting is turned on, a slider is popped up underneath the currently
    edited text element letting the user insert numbers out of the given
    slider range. Whenever this happens, i.e. whenever the slider is moved
    or while the slider button is pressed, a stream of

        reactToSliderEdit(StringOrTextMorph)

    events is dispatched, allowing for "Bret-Victor" style "live coding"
    applications.

    In addition to user-initiated events text elements also emit
    change notifications to their direct parents whenever their drawNew()
    method is invoked. That way complex Morphs containing text elements
    get a chance to react if something about the embedded text has been
    modified programmatically. These events are:

        layoutChanged() - sent from instances of TextMorph
        fixLayout() - sent from instances of StringMorph

    they are different so that Morphs which contain both multi-line and
    single-line text elements can hold them apart.


    (4) stepping
    ------------
    Stepping is what makes Morphic "magical". Two properties control
    a morph's stepping behavior: the fps attribute and the step()
    method.

    By default the

        step()

    method does nothing. As you can see in the examples of BouncerMorph
    and MouseSensorMorph you can easily override this inherited method
    to suit your needs.

    By default the step() method is called once per display cycle.
    Depending on the number of actively stepping morphs and the
    complexity of your step() methods this can cause quite a strain on
    your CPU, and also result in your application behaving differently
    on slower computers than on fast ones.

    setting

        myMorph.fps

    to a number lower than the interval for the main loop lets you free
    system resources (albeit at the cost of a less responsive or slower
    behavior for this particular morph).


    (5) creating new kinds of morphs
    --------------------------------
    The real fun begins when you start to create new kinds of morphs
    with customized shapes. Imagine, e.g. jigsaw puzzle pieces or
    musical notes. For this you have to override the default

        drawNew()

    method.

    This method creates a new offscreen Canvas and stores it in
    the morph's

        image

    property.

    Use the following template for a start:

        MyMorph.prototype.drawNew = function() {
            var context;
            this.image = newCanvas(this.extent());
            context = this.image.getContext('2d');
            // use context to paint stuff here
        };

    If your new morph stores or references to other morphs outside of
    the submorph tree in other properties, be sure to also override the
    default

        updateReferences()

    method if you want it to support duplication.


    (6) development and user modes
    ------------------------------
    When working with Squeak on Scratch or BYOB among the features I
    like the best and use the most is inspecting what's going on in
    the World while it is up and running. That's what development mode
    is for (you could also call it debug mode). In essence development
    mode controls which context menu shows up. In user mode right
    clicking (or double finger tapping) a morph invokes its

        customContextMenu

    property, whereas in development mode only the general

        developersMenu()

    method is called and the resulting menu invoked. The developers'
    menu features Gui-Builder-wise functionality to directly inspect,
    take apart, reassamble and otherwise manipulate morphs and their
    contents.

    Instead of using the "customContextMenu" property you can also
    assign a more dynamic contextMenu by overriding the general

        userMenu()

    method with a customized menu constructor. The difference between
    the customContextMenu property and the userMenu() method is that
    the former is also present in development mode and overrides the
    developersMenu() result. For an example of how to use the
    customContextMenu property have a look at TextMorph's evaluation
    menu, which is used for the Inspector's evaluation pane.

    When in development mode you can inspect every Morph's properties
    with the inspector, including all of its methods. The inspector
    also lets you add, remove and rename properties, and even edit
    their values at runtime. Like in a Smalltalk environment the inspect
    features an evaluation pane into which you can type in arbitrary
    JavaScript code and evaluate it in the context of the inspectee.

    Use switching between user and development modes while you are
    developing an application and disable switching to development once
    you're done and deploying, because generally you don't want to
    confuse end-users with inspectors and meta-level stuff.


    (7) turtle graphics
    -------------------

    The basic Morphic kernel features a simple LOGO turtle constructor
    called

        PenMorph

    which you can use to draw onto its parent Morph. By default every
    Morph in the system (including the World) is able to act as turtle
    canvas and can display pen trails. Pen trails will be lost whenever
    the trails morph (the pen's parent) performs a "drawNew()"
    operation. If you want to create your own pen trails canvas, you
    may wish to modify its

        penTrails()

    property, so that it keeps a separate offscreen canvas for pen
    trails (and doesn't loose these on redraw).

    the following properties of PenMorph are relevant for turtle
    graphics:

        color        - a Color
        size        - line width of pen trails
        heading        - degrees
        isDown        - drawing state

    the following commands can be used to actually draw something:

        up()        - lift the pen up, further movements leave no trails
        down()        - set down, further movements leave trails
        clear()        - remove all trails from the current parent
        forward(n)    - move n steps in the current direction (heading)
        turn(n)        - turn right n degrees

    Turtle graphics can best be explored interactively by creating a
    new PenMorph object and by manipulating it with the inspector
    widget.

    NOTE: PenMorph has a special optimization for recursive operations
    called

        warp(function)

    You can significantly speed up recursive ops and increase the depth
    of recursion that's displayable by wrapping WARP around your
    recursive function call:

    example:

        myPen.warp(function () {
            myPen.tree(12, 120, 20);
        })

    will be much faster than just invoking the tree function, because it
    prevents the parent's parent from keeping track of every single line
    segment and instead redraws the outcome in a single pass.


    (8) damage list housekeeping
    ----------------------------
    Morphic's progressive display update comes at the cost of having to
    cycle through a list of "broken rectangles" every display cycle. If
    this list gets very long working this damage list can lead to a
    seemingly dramatic slow-down of the Morphic system. Typically this
    occurs when updating the layout of complex Morphs with very many
    submorphs, e.g. when resizing an inspector window.

    An effective strategy to cope with this is to use the inherited

        trackChanges

    property of the Morph prototype for damage list housekeeping.

    The trackChanges property of the Morph prototype is a Boolean switch
    that determines whether the World's damage list ('broken' rectangles)
    tracks changes. By default the switch is always on. If set to false
    changes are not stored. This can be very useful for housekeeping of
    the damage list in situations where a large number of (sub-) morphs
    are changed more or less at once. Instead of keeping track of every
    single submorph's changes tremendous performance improvements can be
    achieved by setting the trackChanges flag to false before propagating
    the layout changes, setting it to true again and then storing the full
    bounds of the surrounding morph. An an example refer to the

        moveBy()

    method of HandMorph, and to the

        fixLayout()

    method of InspectorMorph, or the

        startLayout()
        endLayout()

    methods of SyntaxElementMorph in the Snap application.


    (9) minifying morphic.js
    ------------------------
    Coming from Smalltalk and being a Squeaker at heart I am a huge fan
    of browsing the code itself to make sense of it. Therefore I have
    included this documentation and (too little) inline comments so all
    you need to get going is this very file.

    Nowadays with live streaming HD video even on mobile phones 250 KB
    shouldn't be a big strain on bandwith, still minifying and even
    compressing morphic.js down do about 100 KB may sometimes improve
    performance in production use.

    Being an attorney-at-law myself you programmer folk keep harassing
    me with rabulistic nitpickings about free software licenses. I'm
    releasing morphic.js under an AGPL license. Therefore please make
    sure to adhere to that license in any minified or compressed version.


    VIII. acknowledgements
    ----------------------
    The original Morphic was designed and written by Randy Smith and
    John Maloney for the SELF programming language, and later ported to
    Squeak (Smalltalk) by John Maloney and Dan Ingalls, who has also
    ported it to JavaScript (the Lively Kernel), once again setting
    a "Gold Standard" for self sustaining systems which morphic.js
    cannot and does not aspire to meet.

    This Morphic implementation for JavaScript is not a direct port of
    Squeak's Morphic, but still many individual functions have been
    ported almost literally from Squeak, sometimes even including their
    comments, e.g. the morph duplication mechanism fullCopy(). Squeak
    has been a treasure trove, and if morphic.js looks, feels and
    smells a lot like Squeak, I'll take it as a compliment.

    Evelyn Eastmond has inspired and encouraged me with her wonderful
    implementation of DesignBlocksJS. Thanks for sharing code, ideas
    and enthusiasm for programming.

    John Maloney has been my mentor and my source of inspiration for
    these Morphic experiments. Thanks for the critique, the suggestions
    and explanations for all things Morphic and for being my all time
    programming hero.

    I have originally written morphic.js in Florian Balmer's Notepad2
    editor for Windows, later switched to Apple's Dashcode and later
    still to Apple's Xcode. I've also come to depend on both Douglas
    Crockford's JSLint, Mozilla's Firebug and Google's Chrome to get
    it right.


    IX. contributors
    ----------------------
    Joe Otto found and fixed many early bugs and taught me some tricks.
    Nathan Dinsmore contributed mouse wheel scrolling, cached
    background texture handling, countless bug fixes and optimizations.
    Ian Reynolds contributed backspace key handling for Chrome.
    Davide Della Casa contributed performance optimizations for Firefox.

    - Jens Mönig