animate(): do nothing, or wait, without crashing

ID:2242036
 
Apr 29 2017, 5:48 pm
Resolved
Calling animate() with a nonzero time value and no actual appearance changes will insert a delay step.
Applies to:Dream Daemon
Status: Resolved (511.1382)
This issue has been resolved.
Sometimes I find it necessary to start an animation sequence without actually changing anything, just to prepare for the next keyframes. Other times I want to wait a certain period of time without doing anything, between keyframes. Currently, if you try these things, you get a "nothing to animate" runtime error, so I've worked around this by setting something to itself, like animate(time = t, pixel_x = pixel_x)
Apr 30 2017, 10:35 pm
I never really considered that, but you make an excellent point. It's also especially relevant now that parallel animations are supported.

I think it's reasonable to throw this into the next 511 build if I remember to, since it doesn't upset any apple carts.
May 1 2017, 4:56 pm
+1
May 1 2017, 5:00 pm
In response to Unwanted4Murder
Unwanted4Murder wrote:
+1

May 2 2017, 12:46 pm
Hrm, I found something relevant to this: the "nothing to animate" error happens only when you try to start an animation when there was no previous animated object. That's something that won't change.

When you have no values to animate but the call is otherwise valid, you get "no named args". This happens if loop != 0. If loop is 0 or omitted, having no values to animate is interpreted as an all-stop. I think however if time is not 0, it makes sense to go forward with the do-nothing animation.
May 2 2017, 1:16 pm
Lummox JR resolved issue with message:
Calling animate() with a nonzero time value and no actual appearance changes will insert a delay step.