
Orca: an esolang for audio-visual live coding - kick
https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/orca
======
zimbatm
It's also worth taking a look at the author's website:
[https://100r.co/](https://100r.co/) \- ORCA is just one of many projects and
explorations that they do while living on a boat.

~~~
jriley12
Man that's so cool. I feel like that beats tiny homes

~~~
correct_horse
The two happiest days in a boat owner's life are the day he buys the boat and
the day he sells the boat.

~~~
kirubakaran
I bet that doesn't apply to that couple or this one:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk83N2u1ZmY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk83N2u1ZmY)
(Living on a Self-Sufficient Sailboat for 10 Years)

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rwhaling
Great to see Orca on here! Really really fun to play with for generative
music; I made a song with it last year that I posted:
[https://www.instagram.com/p/BzVjW7LBv1K/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BzVjW7LBv1K/)

I also learned a lot from watching Allieway Audio's Orca series on Youtube:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeo2Fo1OidWpT83BT5xmCZw/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeo2Fo1OidWpT83BT5xmCZw/videos)

Orca is fascinating because it is so limited compared to most "programming
languages", and trying to figure out how to express ideas 1) compactly, 2)
without abstraction or recursion, and 3) flexible enough for real-time
editing, is a great, rewarding challenge.

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shalabhc
There's a two part podcast on futureofcoding.org with the creator of Orca,
Devine Lu Linvega:

[https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/044](https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/044)

[https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/045](https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/045)

~~~
spiralganglion
Hey, I know the host of that podcast! He has some weird opinions about visual
programming. Makes sense he'd be interested in Orca.

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cocktailpeanuts
This is a cool project I've been watching for a while.

But off topic from this, what is with all the sourcehut links on HN lately?
Where did this suddenly come out of? Looks like a lot of cool projects are
starting to host their code here. Wondering how it got the traction.

~~~
mmm_grayons
Aside from the "proprietary bad" arguments (which is enough to get traction on
HN), there are a bunch of practical reasons:

1\. It's faster. Mr. Devault, Sourcehut's author, runs a benchmark site that
demonstrates this: [https://forgeperf.org/](https://forgeperf.org/)

2\. The e-mail based workflow is (in my opinion) superior; I don't have to use
some clunky web interface.

3\. I can run it myself, on-premise, for free.

~~~
umvi
> 2\. The e-mail based workflow is (in my opinion) superior; I don't have to
> use some clunky web interface.

Yeah but my email client can't show me nice diffs and let me comment on line
numbers like GitLab/Hub can... Plus I

I don't really understand SH's decision not to support PRs, which seem
fundamental to most workflows.

I think PRs are far superior than spamming up my inbox and using esoteric git
email commands

To be fair, I've never actually tried an email-based workflow, but in my mind
it involves a lot of emails and reply-alls and just general clutter and an
absence of syntax highlighting, pinpoint line commenting, side-by-side diff
and all the other nice things the GitLab/Hub provide with PRs.

~~~
ddevault
>Yeah but my email client can't show me nice diffs

[https://l.sr.ht/QlVR.png](https://l.sr.ht/QlVR.png)

>let me comment on line numbers like GitLab/Hub can

[https://l.sr.ht/cz3L.png](https://l.sr.ht/cz3L.png)

These are also being added to the web UI:

[https://lists.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/sr.ht-
dev/patches/10253](https://lists.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/sr.ht-dev/patches/10253)

But at the end of the day, if this workflow is not for you, there are a half-
dozen other platforms you could be using.

~~~
umvi
> But at the end of the day, if this workflow is not for you, there are a
> half-dozen other platforms you could be using.

I've never actually _used_ an email-based workflow, but I'm trying to
understand why people might prefer it over PRs.

SourceHut gets a lot of love on this site and I feel like I am missing out.
But every time I look into it, I feel like there is something I'm not quite
grasping.

~~~
ddevault
Try this, it'll walk you through the contribution process:

[https://git-send-email.io](https://git-send-email.io)

I like email because it's very efficient, both as a contributor and a
maintainer. It can fire off a patch with a single command, and reviewing lots
of patches is easy, too. It's also distributed and federated by its very
nature, which makes it fault tolerant and keeps your data from being locked up
in a centralized/proprietary database.

~~~
e12e
As a former pine user, now trapped behind o365 web client, top posting and all
- what email client are you currently using?

I've toyed with going over to mutt, looked at alpine, and mulled over trying
notmuch, lumail or even plain nmh.

Ed: for the mail curious, as some of these can be tricky to search for:

[http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/](http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/)

[https://repo.or.cz/alpine.git](https://repo.or.cz/alpine.git)

[https://notmuchmail.org/#index4h2](https://notmuchmail.org/#index4h2)

[https://lumail.org/](https://lumail.org/)

~~~
ddevault
I wrote my own mail client:

[https://aerc-mail.org](https://aerc-mail.org)

------
Dangeranger
There is an excellent overview of how to use the interface by a YouTube
channel called Allieway Audio[0]. It was the explanation that made this
software make sense for me personally.

[0] [https://youtu.be/RaI_TuISSJE](https://youtu.be/RaI_TuISSJE)

------
bradly
You can use Orca online here:
[https://hundredrabbits.github.io/Orca/](https://hundredrabbits.github.io/Orca/)

~~~
khazhoux
Esoteric language indeed!

Is there a way to load an example? I can't figure out how to get anything to
work.

~~~
sulam
My browser doesn't have a MIDI out, so I don't understand how that's meant to
work.

~~~
cpmsmith
It might, actually:
[https://www.w3.org/TR/webmidi/](https://www.w3.org/TR/webmidi/)

Chromium-based browsers only at the moment.

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metasyn
I've been playing around with orca for a few months: its really exciting and
fun to use.

Here are some videos of patches I think are cool:

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH5GaVU0ed8&t=72s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH5GaVU0ed8&t=72s)

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ig84_4RF5E&t=50s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ig84_4RF5E&t=50s)

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzUQlmQvtjI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzUQlmQvtjI)

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_flqHdfFitw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_flqHdfFitw)

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RangerScience
This looks like it could be described as a cross between Dwarf Fortress and
Sonic Pi?

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Gormisdomai
There's a nice demo of this here
[https://youtu.be/RaI_TuISSJE](https://youtu.be/RaI_TuISSJE) (with the
explanation starting 3 mins in)

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disposedtrolley
I remember seeing this on GitHub [1] when it was a JavaScript implementation.
It'll be interesting to see how it's been ported over to C!

[1]
[https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca](https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca)

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news_to_me
> (Also, #pragma once must be supported.)

It's really interesting to me how this isn't standard C — ergonomically, it's
so much nicer than the `ifndef` header guards.

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sj4nz
Thanks for reposting(?) this, I was trying to remember what this project was
the last time it was mentioned on HN.

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CyberDildonics
What is an esolang?

~~~
anamexis
esoteric [programming] language.

~~~
downerending
Argh. These sorts of coined puzzle words need to die. (And don't even get me
started on the "rona".)

~~~
edjrage
Why? It's not like it's hard to Google it or even guess the meaning (at least
in this particular case).

~~~
CyberDildonics
Making up a phrase to give a language a label based a vague notion of
popularity is pretty nonsensical. If people start using it, is it no longer an
'esolang'?

~~~
anamexis
I don't think popularity is the relevant metric here.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esoteric_programming_language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esoteric_programming_language)

[https://esolangs.org/wiki/Main_Page](https://esolangs.org/wiki/Main_Page)

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aldanor
This seems to be heavily influenced by Max? Sort of like a slimmed down
esoteric text version of Max with a few extra quirks.

~~~
kitotik
I’d say closer to csound with a UI inspired by old school midi trackers.

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person_of_color
How does this compare to SonicPi?

~~~
_spduchamp
Different beast. Orca sends midi so you could control SonicPi.

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gyrgtyn
See #ORCΛ on twitter for examples

~~~
cosmojg
Link for the lazy/efficient:
[https://nitter.net/search?q=%23ORC%CE%9B](https://nitter.net/search?q=%23ORC%CE%9B)

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tantalor
"on bang"?

~~~
pierrec
A "bang" is a trigger signal. This is common in audio programming languages
and I think the term originated from Max/MSP:

[https://docs.cycling74.com/max8/tutorials/basicchapter02](https://docs.cycling74.com/max8/tutorials/basicchapter02)

Edit: removed incorrect assumption about audio processing, thanks vertex-four

~~~
vertex-four
No, there's no audio at any point within the system, it's less an audio
programming language and more of a language whose output primitive is a MIDI
note generator.

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suyash
nice to see hosted on source hut

