[HN Gopher] Shadama: A particle simulation programming environme...
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       Shadama: A particle simulation programming environment for everyone
        
       Author : lloydatkinson
       Score  : 140 points
       Date   : 2024-05-28 20:25 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (tinlizzie.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (tinlizzie.org)
        
       | szvsw wrote:
       | I really applaud the developers of this for choosing to develop a
       | programming language with its educational utility as a top
       | priority along with a strong visualization component. As someone
       | who got started programming around 2012 because of wanting to
       | make "cool weird art" with Processing, I at least have strong
       | anecdotal experience which biases me to appreciate that these
       | kinds of endeavors exist. People have their whole lives to learn
       | how to implement eg bin-lattice spatial sorting or the discrete
       | element method or SPH or whatever other three letter CFD acronym
       | you might choose, so even if there are lots of abstraction layers
       | on top, getting these sorts of tools into people's hands at an
       | earlier age is awesome. Hopefully many people will get hooked on
       | programming, CFD, scientific computing, accelerated computing etc
       | simply because the devs of this thought it was worthwhile to make
       | an accessible fun way to "make particles go brrr." Very cool!
        
         | wholinator2 wrote:
         | I mostly agree with you. However I'm frightened of every step
         | of ease we take. Will people really then go farther to end up
         | understanding what's really going on and become physics
         | engineers, or will the hidden detail be to solid and high a
         | wall, much like modern devices, the app-based world, modern
         | mobile games, etc.
         | 
         | I agree that getting more people in on it can be good, but
         | every simplification scares me. What if that's knowledge we
         | never get back? Who among us
        
           | WhitneyLand wrote:
           | I see your point, it seems like this has been a concern since
           | calculators allowed us to stop doing arithmetic.
           | 
           | I think the key is to make sure that when our brains get to
           | "skip" one level of intellectual challenges that we replace
           | it with new challenges.
           | 
           | Put another way, we have finite time and capacity to learn,
           | so what no longer occupies as much of our thinking at one
           | level, hopefully is replaced with something even more useful
           | to focus on at a new level.
        
           | epiccoleman wrote:
           | My guess - lowering barriers to entry is usually a good
           | thing. Maybe you've got someone with the potential to be a
           | low-level engine wizard who just doesn't know they're
           | interested yet because they haven't seen the potential. Maybe
           | someone getting to play with things at a high level starts
           | thinking "but how does it _work_ and dives deeper. Or maybe
           | you have someone who can make something cool, but was never
           | going to slog through the  "physics engineering" to get there
           | - and there's one more cool thing in the world because we
           | knocked a limitation out of their way.
           | 
           | I think your concern is a valid one - but I also think it's
           | worth the "risk" to bring concepts up to accessibility and
           | widen the funnel that leads to depth.
        
           | CyberDildonics wrote:
           | _I 'm frightened of every step of ease_
           | 
           | You're frightened by 'ease'? Do you think this is a real
           | problem?
           | 
           |  _Will people really then go farther to end up understanding
           | what 's really going on and become physics engineers_
           | 
           | Who cares, that's up to them.
           | 
           |  _but every simplification scares me_
           | 
           | This is irrational
           | 
           |  _What if that 's knowledge we never get back?_
           | 
           | That hasn't happened for the last 50 years and there have
           | been a lot of toy languages that no one ever used. I don't
           | think this niche side project is going to somehow erase the
           | decades of global computation progress.
           | 
           |  _Who among us_
           | 
           | What?
        
       | transfire wrote:
       | Kind of disappointed to see that the language is not at all Logo.
        
         | tacotime wrote:
         | How about a logo-inspired python-based library for making
         | embroidery files to brighten your day?
         | https://github.com/TurtleThread/TurtleThread
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcuhrDIrblo
        
           | a1o wrote:
           | Which hardware can "stitch" (I don't know the print
           | equivalent) this? This looks interesting!
        
             | szvsw wrote:
             | Most digitally controlled sewing/embroidery machines have
             | some form of embroidery CNC-like file that they can accept,
             | and as far as I am aware it's easy to convert to other
             | formats for different machines. I picked up an entry-level
             | Brother (same as the printer company!) machine for a friend
             | recently who wanted to start trying some digital design
             | stuff with it. Was my first exposure to that world!
             | 
             | See eg for a list of the common file formats, mostly
             | associated with specific hardware manufacturers I believe.
             | 
             | https://support.brother.com/g/s/hf/htmldoc/ped/im/ped11/en/
             | P...
        
         | anewhnaccount2 wrote:
         | Well there is still StarLogo. Looks like it's even been
         | rebooted: https://www.slnova.org/
        
       | bluPancakes wrote:
       | This is cool
        
       | soulofmischief wrote:
       | It's really cool to see that this project has its evolutionary
       | roots in Extempore. Andrew Sorensen's project does not get enough
       | love.
       | 
       | Extempore/xtlang is an incredibly versatile tool for live coding,
       | I highly recommend taking a peak:
       | https://extemporelang.github.io/docs/overview/philosophy/
        
         | epiccoleman wrote:
         | Andrew Sorensen is awesome. This video of one of his
         | presentations on Impromptu is one of my all-time favorite
         | programming talks:
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY1FSsUV-8c
        
           | soulofmischief wrote:
           | I show this video to anyone who makes the mistake of giving
           | me their time. Such a great buildup.
           | 
           | Extempore is a joy to work with. Haven't touched it in two
           | years, but I hear the call.
        
             | epiccoleman wrote:
             | I really need to get emacs set up again and give extempore
             | a go. I had a blast playing with Overtone (Clojure bindings
             | for supercollider) a few years back.
        
               | soulofmischief wrote:
               | It's touch and go with VSCode. Just about the only reason
               | I'd touch VSCode.
        
               | soulofmischief wrote:
               | Apparently I don't know what touch and go means. What I
               | meant to say is, it's very straightforward to get the
               | VSCode extension set up.
        
       | dukeofdoom wrote:
       | Can you make cool explosions with this. I was looking at spelunky
       | 2 and was wondering how they made the bomb simulation to loos
       | like lava.
        
       | flockonus wrote:
       | I've watched the video in the page, but unclear what's the
       | advantage of making it a language / environment vs. using
       | Phaser.js
       | 
       | The code structure feels quite similar with setup / step ->
       | create / update.
       | 
       | eg:
       | https://labs.phaser.io/view.html?src=src\physics\arcade\500%...
       | -> [source]
        
       | xixixao wrote:
       | Super cool. The video is 6 years old and looks like the
       | development mostly stopped 3 years ago?
       | 
       | https://github.com/yoshikiohshima/Shadama
       | 
       | While it makes sense for students, I feel like for anything
       | coding related to succeed today it must target VS Code as a top
       | target environment.
        
       | DrNosferatu wrote:
       | Always nice to see particle simulations: did an all-GPU N-Body
       | code for my Masters, back in the day before CUDA ;)
        
       | WhitneyLand wrote:
       | What a cool project - getting to build an educational particle
       | simulation system that is fun to play with and possibly inspiring
       | ideas and career directions of who knows how many others.
       | 
       | For me and I bet of lot of others it'd be a dream to work at a
       | place like HARC.
        
       | breck wrote:
       | Edit: This post needs a (2017) in the title :)
       | 
       | Interesting!
       | 
       | I worked on something similar a few years ago. I think I had some
       | good concepts from a long term usability approach, but your
       | engine looks far better.
       | 
       | Demo: https://simoji.treenotation.org/
       | 
       | Source: https://github.com/breck7/simoji
        
       | bvan wrote:
       | Impressive
        
       | tonetegeatinst wrote:
       | Cool read, I wonder how this handles large 3d simulations like
       | the airflow through a system, or a detonation cannon simulation
       | when it comes to performance.
       | 
       | Syntax seems to be like someone mixed elements of C and python in
       | a big kettle, and this syntax was the result.
        
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       (page generated 2024-05-29 23:03 UTC)