ELLIPSE

Syntax

ELLIPSE [#ch,] x,y,radius,ratio,ecc *[;xi,yi,radiusi,ratioi,ecci]*

Location

QL ROM

Both the ELLIPSE and CIRCLE commands perform exactly the same function. We have however decided to split them, since if users adopt the habit of using ELLIPSE to draw ellipses and CIRCLE to draw circles, this will help users understand SuperBASIC programs much more easily.

This command allows you to draw an ellipse in the current INK colour of the given radius with its centre point at the point (x,y).

The ratio affects the difference between the major axis and the minor axis - the greater the ratio, the greater the difference between the two.

The major (y) axis is specified by the parameter radius, whereas the minor (x) axis is calculated by radius*ratio which therefore means that if ratio>1, the major axis will become the (x) axis (if you see what we mean!).

Ecc defines the angle at which the ellipse will be drawn. This is measured in radians and forms the anti-clockwise angle between a vertical line drawn through the origin of the ellipse and the major axis. Thus, ecc=PI/4 draws an ellipse at an angle of 45 degrees.

The actual positioning and size of the ellipse will depend upon the scale and shape of the specified window (default #1).

The co-ordinates are calculated by reference to the graphics origin, and the graphics pointer will be set to the centre point of the last ellipse to be drawn on completion of the command. If any parts of the ellipse lie outside of the specified window, they will not be drawn (there will not be an error).

If the parameters ratio and ecc are omitted, this command has exactly the same effect as CIRCLE. This command will actually allow you to draw multiple ellipses by including more sets of parameters. Each additional set must be preceded by a semicolon (unless the preceding ellipse uses five parameters). This means for example, that these all perform the same action:

ELLIPSE 100,100,20,1,2,50,50,20
ELLIPSE 100,100,20,1,2; 50,50,20
ELLIPSE 100,100,20,1,2: CIRCLE 50,50,20

Although the FILL command will allow you to draw filled ellipses on screen (in the current ink colour), you will need to include a FILL 1 statement prior to each ellipse if they are to appear independently on screen (this cannot be achieved when using this command to draw multiple ellipses).

If this rule is not followed, then any points which lie on the same horizontal line (even though they may be in different ellipses) will be joined.

Example

Try the following for an interesting effect:

100 MODE 8
110 WINDOW 448,200,32,16:PAPER 0:CLS
120 SCALE 100,0,0
130 INK 4:OVER -1
140 REPeat loop
150   FOR ang=0 TO PI*2-(PI*2/20) STEP PI*2/20
160     FILL 1:ELLIPSE 70,50,40,.5,ang
170     FILL 1:ELLIPSE 70,50,40,.5,ang
180   END FOR ang
190 END REPeat loop

NOTE

On all ROMs other than Minerva v1.89+, very small ellipses and very large ones can cause problems. Try:

ELLIPSE 80,80,80,6,1

on a non-Minerva machine for a laugh.

Unfortunately, Lightning SE (v2.11) still contains this bug and will bring it back!

CROSS-REFERENCE

Please refer to CIRCLE, ELLIPSE_R, ARC, LINE and POINT.