[HN Gopher] Ways to Make Sand (2020) [video]
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       Ways to Make Sand (2020) [video]
        
       Author : surprisetalk
       Score  : 29 points
       Date   : 2023-10-27 11:21 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | pimlottc wrote:
       | This is about digitally simulating sand physics, for a video game
       | or something. I thought it would be about
       | manufacturing/processing actual physical sand.
        
         | ghayes wrote:
         | Probably should add "in SpaceTode" to the title.
        
         | DonHopkins wrote:
         | Also:
         | 
         | Top 9 ways to make BIG Sand
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mbs0sx3z2A
         | 
         | And:
         | 
         | Tourism
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCR9zMU2Q_M
         | 
         | More than mere magical pink sand (the bastard stepchild of gray
         | goo and pink slime), Tourism is a sweeping tour of many
         | different vastly different approaches to visual programming,
         | games, engines, cellular automata, user interfaces, and
         | simulations! Including the Moveable Feast Machine (both
         | JavaScript and C++) and the "SPLAT" language and T2 Tile
         | hardware.
        
       | natosaichek wrote:
       | Todepond is a treasure. Everything they touch is brilliant. This
       | is one of my favorites:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4OIcwt8vcE
        
         | DonHopkins wrote:
         | TodePond is such an inspired and inspirational genius! Screens
         | in Screens is exactly the one I was going to recommend too,
         | that will recursively suck you into watching all the rest.
         | 
         | Screens in Screens (ScreenPond) source code:
         | 
         | https://github.com/TodePond/ScreenPond
         | 
         | TodePond's videos:
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/@TodePond/videos
         | 
         | Including the latest stuff on Patreon:
         | 
         | https://www.patreon.com/todepond
         | 
         | ...Where I heard about her recent talk about CellPond at ACM
         | SIGPLAN in Lisbon:
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBYudbaqHAk&t=6703s
         | 
         | It's a modern ground-up reimagination of visual computing, as
         | foundational as Scott Kim's 1988 PhD dissertation, "Viewpoint",
         | but deeper:
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G0r7jL3xl8
         | 
         | >Demo and explanation of Viewpoint, a computer system that
         | imagines how computers might be different had they been
         | designed by visual thinkers instead of mathematicians. Caution:
         | this is basic research, not a proposal for a practical piece of
         | software. Part of my PhD Dissertation at Stanford University in
         | 1988.
         | 
         | Toward a computer for Visual Thinkers:
         | 
         | https://web.archive.org/web/20230207211417/https://scottkim....
         | 
         | Todepond talked about how she was introduced to visual
         | programming as a child by Stagecast Creator (aka KidSim aka
         | Cocoa):
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagecast_Creator
         | 
         | >Stagecast Creator is a visual programming language intended
         | for use in teaching programming to children. It is based on the
         | programming by demonstration concept, where rules are created
         | by giving examples of what actions should take place in a given
         | situation. It can be used to construct simulations, animations
         | and games, which run under Java on any suitable platform.[1]
         | 
         | >History
         | 
         | >The software known as Creator originally started as a project
         | by Allen Cypher and David Canfield Smith in Apple's Advanced
         | Technology Group (ATG) known as KidSim. It was intended to
         | allow kids to construct their own simulations, reducing the
         | programming task to something that anyone could handle.
         | Programming in Creator uses graphical rewrite rules augmented
         | with non-graphical tests and actions.
         | 
         | >In 1994, Kurt Schmucker became the project manager, and under
         | him, the project was renamed Cocoa, and expanded to include a
         | Netscape plug-in. It was also repositioned as "Internet
         | Authoring for Kids", as the Internet was becoming increasingly
         | accessible. The project was officially announced on May 13,
         | 1996. [...]
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33700318
         | 
         | >That's something that Alexander Repenning's "AgentSheets"
         | supported (among other stuff): you could define cellular
         | automata rules by before-and-after examples, wildcards and
         | variables, and attach additional conditions and actions with a
         | visual programming language.
         | 
         | >AgentSheets and other cool systems are described in this
         | classic paper: "A Taxonomy of Simulation Software: A work in
         | progress" from Learning Technology Review by Kurt Schmucker at
         | Apple. It covered many of my favorite systems.
         | 
         | http://donhopkins.com/home/documents/taxonomy.pdf
         | 
         | >Chaim Gingold wrote a comprehensive "Gadget Background Survey"
         | at HARC, which includes AgentSheets, Alan Kay's favorites:
         | Rockey's Boots and Robot Odyssey, and Chaim's amazing SimCity
         | Reverse Diagrams and lots of great stuff I'd never seen before:
         | 
         | http://chaim.io/download/Gingold%20(2017)%20Gadget%20(1)%20S...
         | 
         | >Chaim Gingold has analyzed the SimCity (classic) code and
         | visually documented how it works, in his beautiful "SimCity
         | Reverse Diagrams": [...]
         | 
         | https://lively-web.org/users/Dan/uploads/SimCityReverseDiagr...
         | 
         | >Another great visual programming language for kids that
         | supported defining cellular automata rules by example and
         | visual programming:
         | 
         | >KidSim (later Cocoa, then Stagecast Creator) Smith, David C.,
         | Allen Cypher, and James Spohrer (1994) In KidSim graphical
         | simulations are created via graphical rewrite rules, which also
         | enables a kind of programming by demonstration. The creators
         | argue that most people can use editor GUIs (e.g. paint
         | programs), and can give directions, but cannot program. Their
         | solution is to "get rid of the programming language" in favor
         | of a philosophy grounded in GUI design:
         | 
         | >* Visibility. Relevant information is visible; causality is
         | clear; modelessness. * Copy and modify, not make from scratch.
         | * See and point, not remember and type. * Concrete, not
         | abstract. * Familiar conceptual model. ("minimum translation
         | distance").
         | 
         | >They choose a symbolic simulation microworld as a domain
         | because it leads to knowing, ownership, and motivation. All
         | objects are agents which have appearances, properties (name
         | value pairs), and rules.
         | 
         | >Programming by demonstration extends to using a calculator and
         | dragging properties around to define conditionals. One of the
         | creators of KidSim, David Smith, was also the creator of
         | another graphical programming environment: Pygmalion.
         | 
         | >Smith, David C., Allen Cypher, and James Spohrer (1994)
         | 
         | >(Then I ran across TodePond's Spellular Automata video and
         | realized I was preaching to the choir! TodePond wrote: "and
         | stagecast creator is a big inspiration to me! I name-dropped it
         | in a demo I did this week :D")
         | 
         | >Wow I did not realize I was evangelizing to the choir! This
         | video by TodePond, is exactly what I was talking about, just
         | much more beautiful than I'd imagined possible:
         | 
         | Spellular Automata:
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU
         | 
         | Finally to know there is somebody who appreciates Dave Ackley's
         | amazing work with the Moveable Feast Machine as much as I do!
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24157104
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15560845
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkSXERxucPc
         | 
         | Todepond's work with Max Bittker on SandSpiel Studio is also
         | thoroughly mind blowing:
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34561910
         | 
         | https://studio.sandspiel.club/
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTsy79wx4U
        
       | humbugtheman wrote:
       | Hello thank you for sharing my 9 ways of making sand. If you have
       | any more ideas please let me know, I'm trying to make a sequel to
       | this where I do 99 ways.
        
         | DonHopkins wrote:
         | How about an MMPORG where each player is a grain of sand, and
         | gets to first act out by hand and then gradually automate their
         | behavior like Factorio, like programmable dirt. Call it "Ground
         | Up Programming".
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-27 23:00 UTC)