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

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.

I’m putting together this language design tool that lets you specify basic syntax highlighting for a fictional language as you develop it. It helps avoid staring at unhighlighted code during a language’s initial sketches. It is built on CodeMirror.

The top pane is where you sketch in your language. Write whatever you want there. The lower pane is where you specify the syntax highlighting as pattern, token pairs.