After a week of wrestling, I am still trying to toggle a selection tool from rectangular marquee to elliptical marquee by clicking on their respective small icon BEFORE I begin my selection. Both these selection tools are classes inherited from an abstract class, itself inherited from an abstract class.

On the advice of a forum respondent, I am trying to use a toggle in the form of a variable called shapeSel whereby it is worth 1 for the ellipticalTool and 2 for the rectangular one. I assume that the problem is in my syntax but also how I lay it out in the main part of my program. I left the PictureGallery class in the following code but it is not directly related to the problem.

PictureGallery artWorks;
RectSelectionTool selectRectangle;
EllipseSelectionTool selectEllipse;

void setup() {
  size (screen.width, screen.height);
  background (225, 225, 255);
  artWorks=new PictureGallery (50, 140, 330, 360, color (100));
  selectRectangle = new RectSelectionTool (0, 0, 0, 0, color (0, 0, 255), 50, 50);
  selectEllipse=new EllipseSelectionTool (0, 0, 0, 0, color (0, 0, 255), 50, 50);
}

void draw() {
  background (225, 225, 255);
  artWorks.rollOver();
  artWorks.display();
  artWorks.getIconX();
  artWorks.getIconY();
  selectRectangle.display();
  selectEllipse.display();
}


// mouse and keyboard events

void mousePressed () {
  artWorks.press(mouseX, mouseY);
if (selectRectangle.setToggle(2)) {
    selectRectangle.click (mouseX, mouseY);
  }
  else if
    (selectEllipse.setToggle(1))
  {
    selectEllipse.click (mouseX, mouseY);
  }
}

void mouseDragged() {
  artWorks.drag (mouseX, mouseY);
}

void mouseReleased () {
  artWorks.release();
}

void keyPressed () {
 
  artWorks.flipThrough();
 
  if (key == CODED) {
    if (keyCode == KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL && mousePressed)
    {
      selectRectangle.select();
      selectRectangle.release ();
    }
  }
  if (key == CODED) {
    if (keyCode == KeyEvent.VK_CONTROL && mousePressed)
    {
      selectEllipse.select();
      selectEllipse.release();
    }
  }
}




abstract class InteractiveBoxes {

  int boxPosX, boxPosY, boxPosW, boxPosH;
  color boxClr;
  PFont fontA;  // declare a variable that refers to the default font for all the subclasses
  int fontHeight;
  int marginSpacing;
  int boxPosXOff, boxPosYOff;
  boolean over = false;
  boolean pressed = false;

  InteractiveBoxes (int tempBoxPosX, int tempBoxPosY, int tempBoxWidth, int tempBoxHeight, color tempboxClr) {

    boxPosX=tempBoxPosX;
    boxPosY=tempBoxPosY;
    boxPosW=tempBoxWidth;
    boxPosH=tempBoxHeight;
    boxClr=tempboxClr;
    fontA = loadFont("ArialMT-48.vlw");  // Load the default font that the subclasses will be able to use
    fontHeight=48;  // set a default value for the font height (determined by the font size limit)
    marginSpacing=5;
  }

  // methods of the abstract InteractiveBoxes class

  void rollOver () {
    if ((mouseX>=boxPosX) && (mouseX <=boxPosX+boxPosW) && (mouseY>=boxPosY) && (mouseY<=boxPosY+boxPosH)) {
      over=true;
    }
    else {
      over=false;
    }
  } // end of the rollOver function


  void click (int mX, int mY) {
    boxPosX=mouseX;
    boxPosY=mouseY;
    boxPosW=mouseX-boxPosX;
    boxPosH=mouseY-boxPosY;
  } // end the click function


  void press (int mX, int mY) {
    if (over==true) {
      pressed=true;
      boxPosXOff=mX-boxPosX;
      boxPosYOff=mY-boxPosY;
    }
  }  // end of the press function


  void drag (int mX, int mY) {
    if (pressed==true) {
      boxPosX=mX-boxPosXOff;
      boxPosY=mY-boxPosYOff;
    }
  }  // end of the drag function


  void release () {
    pressed=false;
  }  // end of release function

  abstract void display();
}


class PictureGallery extends InteractiveBoxes {

  // ArrayList pictures;
  PImage[] images=new PImage[10];
  int imageIndex;

  // constructor of the Picture Gallery class

  PictureGallery (int boxPosX, int boxPosY, int boxPosW, int boxPosH, color boxClr) {
    super (boxPosX, boxPosY, boxPosW, boxPosH, boxClr);

    imageIndex=0;

   
    for (int i = 0; i < images.length; i ++ ) {
      images[i] = loadImage( "picture" + i + ".jpg" );
    }
  }  // end of the constructor


  // methods of the PictureGallery class

  int getIconX () {
    return boxPosX;
  }


  int getIconY () {
    return (boxPosY+boxPosH);
  }


  PImage getImage () {
    return images[imageIndex];
  }

  void flipThrough() {
    if (key == CODED) {
      if (keyCode == KeyEvent.VK_F1)
      {
        imageIndex++;
        if (imageIndex>images.length-1) {
          imageIndex=0;
        }
      }
    }
  }

}


abstract class  SelectionTool extends InteractiveBoxes {

  PImage icon;
  int iconXPos, iconYPos, iconW, iconH;
  int SelectX, SelectY, SelectW, SelectH;
  int shapeSel;

  // constructor of the abstract SelectionTool class

  SelectionTool (int boxPosX, int boxPosY, int boxPosW, int boxPosH, color boxClr, int tempIconW, int tempIconH) {
    super (boxPosX, boxPosY, boxPosW, boxPosH, boxClr);

    iconW=tempIconW;
    iconH=tempIconH;
    shapeSel=0;
  }  // end of the constructor


  // methods of the abstract SelectionTool class


    boolean rollOver (boolean over) {
    if (mousePressed && (mouseX>=iconXPos) && (mouseX <=iconXPos+iconW) && (mouseY>=iconYPos) && (mouseY<=iconYPos+iconH))
    {
      over=true;
    }
    else {
      over=false;
    }
    return over;
  } // end of the rollOver function


  void click (int mX, int mY) {
    if (over==true) {
    }
    else { 
      boxPosX=mouseX;
      boxPosY=mouseY;
      boxPosW=mouseX-boxPosX;
      boxPosH=mouseY-boxPosY;
    }
  } // end the click function

 
  void release () {
    pressed=false;
    SelectX=boxPosX;
    SelectY=boxPosY;
    SelectW=mouseX-boxPosX;
    SelectH=mouseY-boxPosY;
  }  // end of release function

 
  abstract void select ();

  abstract void display ();
}  // end of the  SelectionTool class



class  RectSelectionTool extends SelectionTool {

  // constructor of the  RectSelectionTool class

  RectSelectionTool (int boxPosX, int boxPosY, int boxPosW, int boxPosH, color boxClr, int iconW, int iconH) {
    super (boxPosX, boxPosY, boxPosW, boxPosH, boxClr, iconW, iconH);

    icon=loadImage("rectangularmarquee.jpg");
  }  // end of the constructor

  // methods of the RectSelectionTool class


  void select () {

    strokeWeight(1);
    stroke(boxClr);
    fill (0, 0, 0, 0);
    rect (boxPosX, boxPosY, mouseX-boxPosX, mouseY-boxPosY);
    stroke(0);
  }

  int setToggle (int shapeSel) {
    shapeSel=2;
    return shapeSel;
  }

  void release () {
    rect (SelectX, SelectY, SelectW, SelectH);
    stroke(0);
  }


  void display () {
    iconXPos=artWorks.getIconX();
    iconYPos=iconH+artWorks.getIconY();
    image (icon, iconXPos+iconW, iconYPos);
  }  // end of the display function
}  // end of the  RectSelectionTool class



class  EllipseSelectionTool extends SelectionTool {

  // constructor of the  EllipseSelectionTool class

  EllipseSelectionTool (int boxPosX, int boxPosY, int boxPosW, int boxPosH, color boxClr, int iconW, int iconH) {
    super (boxPosX, boxPosY, boxPosW, boxPosH, boxClr, iconW, iconH);

    icon=loadImage ("ellipticalmarquee.jpg");
  }  // end of the constructor


  // methods of the EllipseSelectionTool class


  void select () {
    strokeWeight(1);
    stroke(boxClr);
    fill (0, 0, 0, 0);
    ellipseMode(CORNER);
    ellipse (boxPosX, boxPosY, mouseX-boxPosX, mouseY-boxPosY);
    stroke(0);
  }

  int setToggle (int shapeSel) {
    shapeSel=1;
    return shapeSel;
  }

  void release () {
    ellipseMode(CORNER);
    ellipse (SelectX, SelectY, SelectW, SelectH);
    stroke(0);
  }


  void display () {
    iconXPos=artWorks.getIconX();
    iconYPos=iconH+artWorks.getIconY();
    image (icon, iconXPos, iconYPos);
  }  // end of the display function
}  // end of the  EllipseSelectionTool class