Part of the Eyebeam Chats series…

Poetics of Computer Language: Beauty, complexity and metaphor in the development of new computer languages. Jonathan Vingiano, Ramsey Nasser and Brian House in conversation with Caroline Woolard.

Jonathan Vingiano and Ramsey Nasser are both creating engaging, intuitive and poetic computer programming languages, focusing on the aesthetics of user interface and code. Brian House is a composer and programmer who is intensely interested in the difference between ‘scores’ and ‘code’ in computer music.

Production shots of the first قلب calligraphy piece, shown at Eyebeam’s Open Studios last week.

Working on the Zajal installation for Open Studios. It’s going to be a hackable asteroids/shmup game with physical Arduino-driven controls. Exciting!

These screenshots demonstrate the asteroid generation algorithm I’m working on.

Second prototype of قلب’s code calligraphy. This one says مرحبا يا عالم (hello world), which isn’t executable code, but code-related and fun anyway.

First prototype of قلب’s code calligraphy, done in square kufic with glass tiles. It says “لكل ن” (for each n) and matches the bottom-right part of the bubble sort calligraphy prototype on the language’s site.

In preparation for Eyebeam’s Open Studios later this week.

Mockup of قلب’s new Scheme inspired syntax. I’ve been trying to arrive at a syntax that translates better into calligraphy than the first mockup, and with the parentheses removed, this syntax is nothing but words and numbers.

The parentheses are needed for the code to run correctly, but there is a precedent in leaving off dots, vowel markings, and punctuation in calligraphy, sacrificing readability for elegance.

The Scheme-like syntax is also easier to write an interpreter for.

The code was typed into TextMate, so it is unhighlighted and left-aligned. The English equivalent would be:

http://languagecanvas.herokuapp.com/:

My Language Canvas is live!

It uses a lightweight syntax to specify its highlighting, local storage to save your work seamlessly, and of course its completely live. It still has a bunch of issues, but it works well enough that I’ve been using it every day.

Head over, check it out, let me know what you think of it. Code will be on GitHub soon.

Untyped lambda calculus represented by cut out alligators. A great reminder of how computers aren’t necessary for computation, just convenient.

New Zajal documentation under development:

zajaldev:

I’m working with friend and legendary web designer Chris Driscoll to rebuild the documentation platform from scratch. This Heroku URL is where we’ll be developing the site. What’s up there now is an initial prototype, so stay tuned for changes coming soon!

Process of designing the bubble sort piece, from Ruby code to Arabic code to Square Kufic prototypes in Photoshop.

Part of my fellowship at Eyebeam exploring Code as Self Expression.