Improvements in ToonTalk from Product Version 1 to 2

Product versions 1.03 and 1.04 were released in the fall of 1998. The US English CD-ROM version 2.36 and patch was released in April 2001. Among the many enhancements are:

  • ToonTalk now supports screen sizes of 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x1024, and 1600x1200, giving you sharper graphics and much more room while building things.
  • ToonTalk now has much stronger support for game programming. This includes new and improved sensors and remote controls. It also includes the ability to build and compose behaviors in a flexible and fluid fashion. Visit the Playground Game Place to find and play games built in ToonTalk by children and researchers.
  • The underlying computation model is now enhanced to include advanced facilities such as combining nests, converting one kind of object to another, a direct way for a robot to refer to himself (for recursion), and promotion of robots and other objects to a first-class status (so they can placed in boxes and computed with).
  • ToonTalk is now Internet-aware. Any file used can be a URL that describes a location anywhere on the Internet.
  • ToonTalk is now more tightly integrated with a browser and with the operating system's file explorer so that just double clicking on a file icon containing a ToonTalk object, demo, puzzle, or city launches ToonTalk in an appropriate mode and automates the importing of objects. Also, any number of files can be imported into ToonTalk in a single drag and drop action.
  • ToonTalk now has general support for comments and labels that enable you to give descriptions and names to things.
  • Many shortcuts are now available for frequent actions such as using the clipboard to import and export ToonTalk objects, turning on and off components, and for calling your toolbox and notebook.
  • ToonTalk can now use any standard text-to-speech voice.
  • ToonTalk can now input and display text in languages that require a double-byte character encoding such as Japanese.
  • ToonTalk can display subtitles in any installed language. For example, Japanese subtitles can be displayed while hearing English, though this example requires the installation of the Japanese version.
  • The generator of Java applets from ToonTalk objects is now greatly enhanced to cover nearly every ToonTalk feature and enhancement.
  • Pictures of type JPG, PNG, or GIF can now be imported into ToonTalk.
  • Birds can now fly to nests on other computers, enabling collaboration and multi-user games and applications.
  • Literally hundreds of small improvements and bug fixes have been done to make ToonTalk a more friendly, powerful, and fun environment in which to build and run programs.
  • And even more is planned for version 3!

Customers of the US version 1.04 CD-ROM can upgrade for free. There is also a new trial and beta version. The ToonTalk 2 CD-ROM is for sale. The US English version includes a free upgrade to version 3.

Full details of every change from version 1 to 2 can be found here.

Changes from version 2 to 3 are described here.

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