thanks nick and all for your comments!
the Thingee is making some progress!
rough preliminary screengrabs at
http://thebot.org/lcgrabs/
well it may be getting a little *too* pretty now, but it's usually quite
a bit goofier when you see it move. and of course, since you're seeing it
respond to the code as i type it in, it has that livecode appeal that you
can't see in the stills... i think i've got the exception
handling worked out now so it doesn't crash when i type illegal code in.
however, there's still plenty of room for me to make a fool of myself in
performance, as i occasionally type things by accident that make the
code-boxes go whizzing around out of my control and then i have to try to
"catch" one to make it stop. (i am working on a "panic button"
implementation - but of course it's much more entertaining if i at least
*try* to catch them... :-) )
some more details: there are currently 6 code-boxes (editors) on the
screen, plus two buffers which can take images of the app or the whole
screen for feedback purposes ... the idle loop will execute the code in
any or all of the code-boxes that end with a semicolon at a given moment.
you can type a one line command or
a many line snippet in each box (assuming enough space - the box will
expand, up to a point. of course, you can type some code to make the font
smaller, and that would give you more room.) i migh try a ctrl-something
like alex is doing, which would seem logical... but given that there's 6
boxes the semicolon might actually be easier because you can be sure of
which one is
going to be affected. also, it's kind of neat visually because the code
takes effect as soon as you type the semicolon. thinking of alex and
geoff's discussion of performative speech and performative code - it's
kind of neat (i think) to see the *semicolon* actually perform what it
does! (and also will be a funny inside joke to people who know that lingo
doesn't use semicolons like all those "difficult" languages. :-) )
as to the shortcut/longhand thing - as i guess nick was alluding to - i'm
working it out as i go along. :-) sometimes it makes sense to type it
all out, but for certain stuff, it's just too much - so shortcuts become
essential... the discerning screengrab viewer may
note the beginnings of a custom shortcut grammar beginning, based on my
personal tendency toward verbification: therefore, the following commands
exist in ThingeeLanguage: smallify, rotify, skewify, colorify, bigify and
biggify (because i cannot seem to spell that one consistently). there are
some other commands too that don't match that convention - i'll probably
go back and "ify" them too.
well, there is still some work to do on it, but then again, i guess it
doesn't need to be done til august so should be plenty of time to get it
ready for r+d camp...
thanks for all your feedback (pun intended),
-_at_
On Fri, 21 May 2004, Nick Collins wrote:
NC>
NC> There is freedom for the live coder to determine the language of their
NC> discourse. The continuum low to high level abstraction is part of that.
NC> Appreciating algorithms is an attempt for an educated audience to share the
NC> feeling of code running in their minds (to paraphrase Alex) as they also
NC> hear/see results. Connisseurial reaction may very based on whether you
NC> spontanteously create some algorithm variant in fine detail or call
NC>
NC> MySplendidShortcut(3.14158)
NC>
NC> As for the implicit controls of language assumptions, and the wrangling of
NC> control, Julian has spoken poetically about this, and I think he should be
NC> credited with anticipating these issues by calling an event 'changing
NC> grammars'.
NC>
NC>
NC> oops, hope that didn't sound too dictatorial; I admit all your points Amy,
NC> and these continuums of leeway are the aesthetic territory of future
NC> professional live coding critics...
NC>
NC>
NC>
NC>
NC>
Received on Fri May 21 2004 - 10:23:44 BST