%% Lesson 1: Hello World!
% In this script we'll learn how to open a 'screen' using the psychtoolbox,
% put up some text, pause, and close the window.  Once you get this
% working, you're well off the ground for puting up stimuli wit the
% psychtoolbox.

%% Opening the screen
% Most commands using the psychtoolbox are called using a single matlab
% function, SCREEN.  The first argument for SCREEN is the name of the
% command, and the rest are arguments specific to that command.  Getting
% help for the Screen command is a bit unconventional.  Rather than typing
% 'help Screen', to get a list of commands, type:

Screen


%%
% The first Screen command will be 'OpenWindow', the first in the list.
% To see more about how to use that command, use the Screen command like
% this.

Screen('OpenWindow?')

%%
% Yes, that's a lot of verbage!  The most important part of this verbage
% is the first line which describes how to use the command:
%
%  [windowPtr,rect]=Screen('OpenWindow',windowPtrOrScreenNumber [,color]
%  [,rect][,pixelSize][,numberOfBuffers][,stereomode][,multisample][,imagin
%  gm ode]);
%
% Arguments in [brackets] are optional.
%
% The second Screen command is 'CloseAll'.  We'll use 'OpenWindow' and
% 'Close' together because if we just use 'OpenWindow' alone it'll leave
% the computer in a state where we can't see the Matlab command window.
%
% Here's a simple set of commands that opens the screen and then closes
% it. Be sure to run these two lines together:

windowPtr=Screen('OpenWindow',0);
Screen('CloseAll');
%%
% The second argument '0' means open the default screen on your computer.
% If you have an external monitor (or projector), you can use '1'.
%
% We can put up text in our screen with the Screen function 'DrawText'.
% These four lines opens the screen, puts up some text, pauses for two
% seconds and closes it:

windowPtr=Screen('OpenWindow',0);
Screen('DrawText',windowPtr,'Hello World!',500,500);
Screen('Flip',windowPtr);
pause(2)
Screen('CloseAll');

%%
% The variable 'windowPtr' returned by 'Screen' when you open the window
% is important - it holds a pointer to the memory register for the window
% which needs to be passed back into 'Screen' every time you use it.
%
% What is this 'Flip' command?  This is an important Screen function that
% waits for a signal that the monitor has refreshed before showing
% everything that has been shown since the previous 'Flip' command.
% (Actually it's performing a technique called 'double buffering' which
% involves flipping between two 'display surfaces', but we don't need to
% go into that right now.)
%
% 'Flip' serves two useful functions. First it ensures that any drawing
% happpens after the screen refresh to avoid 'tearing' artifacts that
% occur when a refresh occurs in the middle of putting up graphics.
% Second, it gives you control over the timing of your animations.  As
% long as all of your drawing occurs in less than it a single frame
% (usually something like 1/60 of a second), then your animation will be
% performed at exactly the frame rate of the monitor, which is a very
% reliable thing.

%% Try and Catch
% It can be inconvenient if you have a bug in your program that causes the
% program to terminate when the screen is open.  To get out of this you
% have to switch to the command window by going to the task manager,
% switching to the matlab command window and typing (blindly)
% "Screen('CloseAll')".  A nice way around this by using the 'try' and
% 'catch' commands (Thanks to Sungjun Joo for this suggestion).  'try' and
% 'catch' are commands that allow control over how erorrs are handled in
% Matlab.  Here's an example:

try
    windowPtr = Screen('OpenWindow', 0);
    %Place a bad line of code here...
catch ME
    Screen('CloseAll');
    rethrow(ME);
end
Screen('CloseAll');

%%
% This should function normally, but if you add a bad line of code
% anywherer between 'try' and me', control will be sent to the lines
% following the 'catch' command.  Here, the screen is closes and the error
% message is displayed in the command window using the 'rethrow' command.

%% A customized version of OpenWindow
% You may get a series of scary warnings both in the command window and on
% the screen when Screen is used, depending on the computer you're using.
% When a screen is opened, a variety of checks are made by Screen to
% determine issues such as the timing of the referesh rate.  Don't let the
% guys who wrote the psychtoolbox know I said this, but I find some of
% these dire warnings to be not so dire, like the ones about skipping
% video frames.  Fortunately, you can turn these warnings off using the
% 'Screen('Preference') command.
%
% You can set a variety of screen attributes with the
% 'Screen('Preference') command.  You can get help the usual way:

Screen('Preference?')

%%
% I've written a function called 'OpenWindow' that calls 'OpenScreen'
% after setting some of the preferences beforehand to avoid warnings (if
% desired). I find this function useful because it hides a bunch of ugly
% lines that I used to have to include every time I opened the window.  It
% also opens the screen to a default color of black.
%
% It also introduces a structure called 'display' that contains useful
% information about the current computer display, such as the 'windowPtr'
% variable.  Later we'll add fields to this structure about the viewing
% distance that will allow us to define our stimuli in 'real-world'
% parameters like degrees of visual angle and seconds rather than
% display-oriented parameters like pixels and frames.
%
% Here's an example of how to use 'OpenWindow'.

try
    display.skipChecks =1;
    display.bkColor = [255,255,0];
    display = OpenWindow(display);
    Screen(display.windowPtr,'DrawText','Psychophysics Rules!',500,500,[255,0,0]);
    Screen('Flip',display.windowPtr);
    pause(2)
catch ME
    Screen('CloseAll');
    rethrow(ME)
end
Screen('CloseAll');

%%
% Note the [255,0,0] which defines the color of the text to be red
% (r,g,b).
%
% Also check out the display structure:
%
display

%%
% (Your results may vary).  It has fields with information about the
% display's frame rate and screen resolution.
%
% You can set some parameters for OpenWindow by passing in an existing
% 'display' structure.  More information about this can be seen by getting
% help:

help OpenWindow

%% Exercises
%
% For this week's exercises, please use the 'try' and 'catch' commands as
% described here, and use the OpenWindow function.
%
% # Write a script called 'YellowOnBlue.m' that opens the screen with a
% blue background, puts up yellow letters [255,255,0] saying 'Yellow on
% Blue', pauses for 5 seconds and closes the window.
% # Use the 'Flip' command in a loop instead of the 'Pause' command.  For
% example, if your monitor has a frame rate of 60Hz, then a loop with 60
% calls to 'Flip' will take exactly one second.
%








