Pythonocc-nodes-for-Ryven VS LookAtThat

As a visual person (traditionally trained as a graphic artist), I've wanted this sort of thing for a long while, and I've been trying to use it for 3D.

Surprisingly, there are multiple specialized tools for this:

- https://www.blockscad3d.com --- an adaptation of Google's Blockly to OpenSCAD

- https://github.com/derkork/openscad-graph-editor --- wires and nodes, it has the advantage of exposing _all_ of OpenSCAD's commands (the above has a subset)

- https://github.com/Tanneguydv/Pythonocc-nodes-for-Ryven --- a module for using PythonOCC in Ryven --- when I finally succeeded, I found the language inscrutable, even when provided w/ quite nice examples (definitely a failing on my part, not that of the tool)

- https://github.com/graphscad/graphscad --- it took a long while for the source code for this to be made available, and for a while it had compatibility problems (why was "cube" redefined?) --- probably defunct for political reasons, it had some interesting ideas, in particular the ability to have custom icons for modules

- https://www.nodebox.net --- if memory serves I got hung up by not easily being able to do 3D, and when doing 2D having precision problems (or maybe that was Processing.org)

and I've been using these tools to make various things:

https://willadams.gitbook.io/design-into-3d/3d-project

(and maybe eventually I'll finish something)

The problem I've been running into is there doesn't seem to be an answer to the question:

"What does an algorithm look like?"

I recently had occasion to mention Herman Hesse's _The Glass Bead Game_ (also published as _Magister Ludi_) and I'll bring it up again --- what is a meaningful graphical representation of a program?

The Drakon folks argued that there should be one true path but that's not really communicative and I would note that if this was a simple thing it wouldn't be decades since I last saw a physical Flowcharting Template:

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/flo...

(and it's pretty rare to even see a well-done electronic drawing of a flowchart since Visio made its splash and vanished into the bowels of Microsoft)

The main problem seems to be one of expressiveness not scaling up well, hence:

https://blueprintsfromhell.tumblr.com/

https://scriptsofanotherdimension.tumblr.com/

Presumably, one doesn't want to define modules/variables unnecessarily --- but the question becomes where is that boundary?

If you define too many, then you're back to the "wall of text" which one was trying to avoid (but wrapped up in nice boxes with some lines or shapes), and if one doesn't use them (well, look at the pretty/awful images in the links above).

Ideally, a well-coded visual program would have a pleasing aesthetic appearance which is expressive and communicates flow and function, and I've tried for that at:

https://willadams.gitbook.io/design-into-3d/programming

(though I wish that there was an easy way to export an SVG version of a program)

I believe that what is needed here is some graphical equivalent to Literate Programming: http://literateprogramming.com

Is there a nice GUI toolkit integration which would allow making a graphical application with this? I have an idea I want to try it which might be a good fit.

"What does an algorithm look like?"

I'm an intensely visual person, but have never found a visual programming system which scales well --- the problem is, past a certain level of complexity one has to use modules, which then devolves the visual representation down to just a bunch named blocks.

That said, I'm using BlockSCAD:

https://www.blockscad3d.com/community/projects/1421975

to work up designs which I'm then putting into other tools.

Looking at GraphSCAD:

http://graphscad.blogspot.com

and there's also Ryven and pythonocc which I managed to get installed:

https://ryven.org

https://github.com/Tanneguydv/Pythonocc-nodes-for-Ryven

but I'd really like to see a tool for this sort of thing which made G-code.

https://github.com/tikimcfee/LookAtThat

View, search, and analyze arbitrary source code (best support of Swift right now) in 3D and AR space. You open your phone or tablet, yeet hundreds of files into 3D space, and can start highlighting, moving, and tracing execution by literally walking around your code. The desktop app has similar features, and the standard 3D viewer is just as fun.

I would love help - from anyone of any kind - to build this out towards greater usefulness. It’s a lot of fun, it’s super cool to look at, and it’s the thing I’ve wanted to use since I was a small child.

“Let me touch the words!!”

I feel like I’ve been spamming this everywhere and any time I get the chance, but I really want people to join in and help define this experience with me for developers.

https://github.com/tikimcfee/LookAtThat

AR VR for iOS and macOS. Millions of glyphs. Instant control. There’s magic here. If this excites you, work with me and help make this a reality! I don’t have all of it in me.

I wish I did. I don’t. I don’t have all the time and energy. But there are people here that if they spent just a little time to work on this, we would be in the future of a 3D code space in days, and not weeks or months.

I owe a new readme for the project. If any of this makes you feel any feelies, get in contact with me star it, make noise, whatever!

Lotta love to yall. Thanks for letting me vomit words.

I have this mostly working for Swift by thread and execution tracing matched to syntax analysis in https://github.com/tikimcfee/LookAtThat.

You can record app execution, and then play it back thread and line and by line to see each line executing in time. It’s kinda fun to see millions of lines flash and highlight and move at 60fps and seeing implicit relationships between executing files and high level functional flows

If I may be so bold as include something I’m working on myself, I’d love to chime in! I’m not functionally complete, but feel like I’m writing an amalgamation of all of the above tools.

https://github.com/tikimcfee/LookAtThat