Word Collider

[luigihs]

/**
 * Write a description of class WordCollider here.
 * 
 * @author (your name) 
 * @version (a version number or a date)
 */
public class WordCollider
{
    // instance variables - replace the example below with your own
    private Text word1;
    private Text word2;
    // the characters contained in word1
    private Text[] charWord1;
    // the characters contained in word2
    private Text[] charWord2;

    /**
     * Constructor for objects of class WordCollider
     */
    public WordCollider(String w1, String w2)
    {
        // initialise instance variables
        word1 = new Text(w1);
        word1.randomizePosition();
        word1.changeColor("green");
        word1.changeSize(48);
        word1.makeVisible();
        word2 = new Text(w2);
        word2.randomizePosition();
        word2.changeColor("orange");
        word2.changeSize(48);
        word2.makeVisible();
        charWord1 = new Text[w1.length()];
        charWord2 = new Text[w2.length()];
        fillChars(charWord1, w1);
        fillChars(charWord2, w2);
    }

    private void fillChars(Text[] a, String w) {
        char[] cs = w.toCharArray();
        for (int i=0; i<a.length; i++) {
            a[i] = new Text(""+cs[i]);
            a[i].changeSize(48);
            a[i].changeColor("red");
        }
    }

    /**
     * Randomize the position of the two words repeatedly and stop
     * when the bounding box of the two words overlaps.
     */
    public void animate()
    {
        word1.makeInvisible();
        word2.makeInvisible();
      
    }
/**
     * erase the words and any other characters on the display
     */
    public void clearDisplay() {
    }

    /**
     * check if the bounding box of the two words overlaps.
     * @return true when the words overlap and false otherwise.
     */
    private Boolean checkOverlap() {
        return false;
    }

}

Hi people Im really new to Java barely understand I know I have to do a loop or something in void animate Randomize the position of the two words repeatedly and stop when the bounding box of the two words overlaps. But I dont know how to do it how is the program is going to know when is overlaps im so confused help me please!!!

[quad64bit]

Woah there, slow down. You're asking several things at once. If I understand you, you are asking how to:

1. Animate, or at least randomize the position of the items
2. Collision detection on those items

Is that correct? If so, part 1 would involve making a look (outside of your paint method) that tells the system how often to refresh the screen. You would also need a method that actually paints the items onto the screen, and then usually another method that performs logic (like movement and collision). A normal loop would do something like:
- Perform logic (move items, bounce items, whatever)
- Paint the new state of all the objects onto a panel
- refresh the screen

Part 2 is more complex depending on the number of entities. For just a few bouncing entities, a brute force iteration would be fine (check every item against every other item for a collision). There are ways to optimize this, such as only checking every pair of elements once, etc... If you need to work with hundreds or thousands of entities, this is a MUCH more complex problem which is usually solved with data structures (like QuadTrees).