Drop is a class and reachedBotttom() is a function of that class. You can only call it on an object of the class ...i.e a drop. Try adding this to the for loop in the main tab....

for (int i = 0; i < totalDrops; i++ ) {
   drops[i].move();
   drops[i].display();
   if (catcher.intersect(drops[i])) {
     drops[i].caught();
   if(drops[i].reachedBottom())
   (rectlength=rectlength-1);
   }

I've been messing with that bit of code you gave me and it still isn't working. I'm certain there's nothing misspelled, there's the right number of {'s and }'s and all. Does anyone see the problem?

The problem was that the if statement was inside the other if statement (my mistake).... so I moved it outside. I also added my own rectangle code, and it works OK.... except....

Now you have the problem that the "reached bottom" is being detected every frame for the raindrops below the bottom, so that the rectangle's size gets decreased very rapidly. I'll let you decide how to solve this yourself (if you get stuck let me know).

Code:

float rectlength=80;

Catcher catcher;    // One catcher object
Timer timer;	  // One timer object
Drop[] drops;	 // An array of drop objects
int totalDrops = 0; // totalDrops

void setup() {
  size(400,400);
  smooth();
  noStroke();
  catcher = new Catcher(32); // Create the catcher with a radius of 32
  drops = new Drop[1000];    // Create 1000 spots in the array
  timer = new Timer(300);   // Create a timer that goes off every 2 seconds
  timer.start();		 // Starting the timer
}

void draw() {
  background(255);
  fill(255,0,0);
  rect(20, height-20, rectlength, 10);
  // Set catcher location
  catcher.setLocation(mouseX,mouseY); 
  // Display the catcher
  catcher.display(); 
  
  // Check the timer
  if (timer.isFinished()) {
    // Deal with raindrops
    // Initialize one drop
    drops[totalDrops] = new Drop();
    // Increment totalDrops
    totalDrops ++ ;
    // If we hit the end of the array
    if (totalDrops >= drops.length) {
	totalDrops = 0; // Start over
    }
    timer.start();
    
  }
  
  // Move and display all drops
  for (int i = 0; i < totalDrops; i++ ) {
    drops[i].move();
    drops[i].display();
    if (catcher.intersect(drops[i])) {
	drops[i].caught();
	 
    }
    if(drops[i].reachedBottom())
    rectlength=rectlength-1;
  }
} 

One way to do it (I tried this, and it works), is to have a new boolean field for each drop called bottomed, initially set to false... Every time through the for loop you check to see if bottom has been reached AND "bottomed" is still false. If so,  you decrement your counter, rectangle etc by 1.... and then set bottomed to true. So the next time you come through the loop....bottomreached() is true, but bottomed is also now true - so the counter doesn't get decremented... so you only ever get one decrement for every drop that reaches the bottom....

"bottomed" is like a flag that gets put up when a drop reaches the bottom, and it can only be put up once.....

Well...here's the code I added...

Code:

for (int i = 0; i < totalDrops; i++ ) {
    drops[i].move();
    drops[i].display();
    if (catcher.intersect(drops[i])) {
	drops[i].caught();
	 
    }
    if(drops[i].reachedBottom() && !drops[i].signalled)
    {
	rectlength=rectlength-1;
	drops[i].signalled=true;
    }
  } 

And in Drop class:

Code:

class Drop {
  float x,y;   // Variables for location of raindrop
  float speed; // Speed of raindrop
  color c;
  float r;     // Radius of raindrop
  boolean signalled=false;
//etc..rest the same
 

Note you could just add a counter in the for loop, which counts the number of drops which has been missed.... at the moment it is just making the rectangle smaller each time - but the code ensures it only happens once per drop when it reaches the bottom.

I think the best way to do this is to make use of the timer class you already have. You can create a new timer - and when this expires you increase the speed. And then re-initialise the timer again, as is done with the exisiting timer (I think this timer as a separate class is unnecessarily complicated ...but, I'm trying to work within the structure you already have).

I kind of get the feeling....(and don't take offense at this), that you don't fully understand how classes work - the difference between a class and an object....

You don't need to change the timer class....it will do what you want already as it is set up. What you need is a new timer object which is an particular instance of the class. The timer class is like a blueprint for the object. It doesn't actually do anything until you create an instance of the class - a timer object. Once you have the blueprint you can make as many timers as you like.

timer = new Timer(300);

Here you created a timer with a time of 300 milliseconds.
If you want another timer, just create one, giving it a new name...so if you want something to happen every 80 drops, and you know that you are getting one drop every 300 milliseconds...then you need a timer of 24000 milliseconds....

timer2= new timer(24000);

Then you can say if(timer2.isFinished()) {increase the speed of all the drops}

Similarly....every drop is an object of the Drop class....every drop has it's own individual properties:

 float x,y;   // Variables for location of raindrop
 float speed; // Speed of raindrop
 color c;
 float r;     // Radius of raindrop
 boolean signalled;

So every drop object "remembers" its own x position, y position, color etc. If you want to change them you have to tell every single drop to change its speed, for example...normally done with a for loop if the objects are in an array.

for (int i = 0; i < totalDrops; i++ )
{
   drops[i].speed+=1; //increase speed of drop by 1
}

I recommend that you read through the bit in the book about classes and objects and make sure you really understand these concepts and how they work.....

Hope this helps and that you don't find it patronising (just trying to see where you are at in your understanding and making a recommendation)....

Good luck....