7. EXT: Show text

7.1. display.show full syntax

The use of the wait parameter is useful when wanting to show text and play sounds at the same time.
display.show(value, delay=400, \*, wait=True, loop=False, clear=False)
Display letters/digits of a string, float, in sequence.
Each letter, digit or image is shown with delay milliseconds between them.
The default delay is 400ms. When no delay is specified the default of 400ms is used.

The use of \*, in the syntax is to indicate that for those parameters after it, wait, loop and clear, the arguments must be specified using their keyword.

If wait is True, this function will block until the animation is finished. If wait is False, the animation will happen in the background.

If loop is True, the animation will repeat forever.

If clear is True, the display will be cleared after it has finished.

Tasks

  1. Experiment with the named parameters by trying them out with True or False to see what effect they have.

  2. Experiment with showing text using wait=False and playing sounds.

Tip

display.show has a wait parameter that can be set to False so that displaying information on the microbit display doesn’t hold up other actions like driving motors on a bot.
e.g. display.show(motor_speed, wait=False)