Node-based description

[ciric50]

I wonder if it would be useful to describe structure-synth programs using nodes? For example, for this code

Code:

set background #225
set maxdepth 17

r1

rule r1 w 2 {
    { color #c63 } box
    { x 0.5 y 0.2 s 0.7 0.8 0.6 } r2
}

rule r1 w 1 {
    { y 0.4 z 0.3 } r1
}

rule r2 w 2 {
    { color #292 } box
    { x -0.2 y -0.5 s 0.9 0.7 0.8 } r1
}

rule r2 w 1 {
    { x 0.4 z 0.5 } r2
}

the node description for rules and recursion would look like this:



Rules are represented by the larger rectangles, while the inner rectangles in the center represent different implementations of the same rule. If nothing else, it helps me see better the structure of the program. Just a thought.

[barcud]

I am not the biggest fan of the graphical node programming but that is more of a personal preference than an objective view.

You can see nodes a lot in Blender or Rhino  - especially if you use the parametric plugins like Sverchok (Blender) or Houdini/Grasshopper (I think)(Rhino).
I am using Sverchok but the moment things get a bit more complicated I find that I loose the overview quite quickly - see attached image.

And in the end if you want to still write the rules without nodes you end up with a lot of connected text boxes and arrows with numbers (for maxdepth and rule after reaching maxdepth)
Not sure that would make it easier to understand in terms of what is going on.

So in my view the graphical nodes are not really an improvement I would be using or looking for.

I was contemplating if the parser and core could be ported to python so you could run eisen scripts directly in Blender giving you access to more rendering options and more basic shapes.
Or implementing more shapes in Structure Synth like cylinders and "squash-able" spheres but so far I didn't really get anywhere with those ideas.

Hope you are still having fun with playing around. There are some quite interesting creations to be found!!!

[ciric50]

Despite years of effort in creating programming languages, almost all modern software is created using text-based languages: Java, Python, C, javascript, etc. Visual programming tends to be limited to special cases. I do think that sometimes a visual representation of an algorithm can be useful though. I always liked the old flow charts for very complicated algorithms.