TodePond is such an inspired and inspirational genius! Screens in Screens is exactly the one I was going to recommend too, that will recursively suck you into watching all the rest.
>Demo and explanation of Viewpoint, a computer system that imagines how computers might be different had they been designed by visual thinkers instead of mathematicians. Caution: this is basic research, not a proposal for a practical piece of software. Part of my PhD Dissertation at Stanford University in 1988.
>Stagecast Creator is a visual programming language intended for use in teaching programming to children. It is based on the programming by demonstration concept, where rules are created by giving examples of what actions should take place in a given situation. It can be used to construct simulations, animations and games, which run under Java on any suitable platform.[1]
>History
>The software known as Creator originally started as a project by Allen Cypher and David Canfield Smith in Apple's Advanced Technology Group (ATG) known as KidSim. It was intended to allow kids to construct their own simulations, reducing the programming task to something that anyone could handle. Programming in Creator uses graphical rewrite rules augmented with non-graphical tests and actions.
>In 1994, Kurt Schmucker became the project manager, and under him, the project was renamed Cocoa, and expanded to include a Netscape plug-in. It was also repositioned as "Internet Authoring for Kids", as the Internet was becoming increasingly accessible. The project was officially announced on May 13, 1996. [...]
>That's something that Alexander Repenning's "AgentSheets" supported (among other stuff): you could define cellular automata rules by before-and-after examples, wildcards and variables, and attach additional conditions and actions with a visual programming language.
>AgentSheets and other cool systems are described in this classic paper: “A Taxonomy of Simulation Software: A work in progress” from Learning Technology Review by Kurt Schmucker at Apple. It covered many of my favorite systems.
>Chaim Gingold wrote a comprehensive "Gadget Background Survey" at HARC, which includes AgentSheets, Alan Kay's favorites: Rockey’s Boots and Robot Odyssey, and Chaim's amazing SimCity Reverse Diagrams and lots of great stuff I’d never seen before:
>Another great visual programming language for kids that supported defining cellular automata rules by example and visual programming:
>KidSim (later Cocoa, then Stagecast Creator) Smith, David C., Allen Cypher, and James Spohrer (1994) In KidSim graphical simulations are created via graphical rewrite rules, which also enables a kind of programming by demonstration. The creators argue that most people can use editor GUIs (e.g. paint programs), and can give directions, but cannot program. Their solution is to “get rid of the programming language” in favor of a philosophy grounded in GUI design:
>• Visibility. Relevant information is visible; causality is clear; modelessness. • Copy and modify, not make from scratch. • See and point, not remember and type. • Concrete, not abstract. • Familiar conceptual model. (“minimum translation distance”).
>They choose a symbolic simulation microworld as a domain because it leads to knowing, ownership, and motivation. All objects are agents which have appearances, properties (name value pairs), and rules.
>Programming by demonstration extends to using a calculator and dragging properties around to define conditionals. One of the creators of KidSim, David Smith, was also the creator of another graphical programming environment: Pygmalion.
>Smith, David C., Allen Cypher, and James Spohrer (1994)
>(Then I ran across TodePond's Spellular Automata video and realized I was preaching to the choir! TodePond wrote: "and stagecast creator is a big inspiration to me! I name-dropped it in a demo I did this week :D")
>Wow I did not realize I was evangelizing to the choir! This video by TodePond, is exactly what I was talking about, just much more beautiful than I'd imagined possible:
Screens in Screens (ScreenPond) source code:
https://github.com/TodePond/ScreenPond
TodePond's videos:
https://www.youtube.com/@TodePond/videos
Including the latest stuff on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/todepond
...Where I heard about her recent talk about CellPond at ACM SIGPLAN in Lisbon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBYudbaqHAk&t=6703s
It's a modern ground-up reimagination of visual computing, as foundational as Scott Kim's 1988 PhD dissertation, "Viewpoint", but deeper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G0r7jL3xl8
>Demo and explanation of Viewpoint, a computer system that imagines how computers might be different had they been designed by visual thinkers instead of mathematicians. Caution: this is basic research, not a proposal for a practical piece of software. Part of my PhD Dissertation at Stanford University in 1988.
Toward a computer for Visual Thinkers:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230207211417/https://scottkim....
Todepond talked about how she was introduced to visual programming as a child by Stagecast Creator (aka KidSim aka Cocoa):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagecast_Creator
>Stagecast Creator is a visual programming language intended for use in teaching programming to children. It is based on the programming by demonstration concept, where rules are created by giving examples of what actions should take place in a given situation. It can be used to construct simulations, animations and games, which run under Java on any suitable platform.[1]
>History
>The software known as Creator originally started as a project by Allen Cypher and David Canfield Smith in Apple's Advanced Technology Group (ATG) known as KidSim. It was intended to allow kids to construct their own simulations, reducing the programming task to something that anyone could handle. Programming in Creator uses graphical rewrite rules augmented with non-graphical tests and actions.
>In 1994, Kurt Schmucker became the project manager, and under him, the project was renamed Cocoa, and expanded to include a Netscape plug-in. It was also repositioned as "Internet Authoring for Kids", as the Internet was becoming increasingly accessible. The project was officially announced on May 13, 1996. [...]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33700318
>That's something that Alexander Repenning's "AgentSheets" supported (among other stuff): you could define cellular automata rules by before-and-after examples, wildcards and variables, and attach additional conditions and actions with a visual programming language.
>AgentSheets and other cool systems are described in this classic paper: “A Taxonomy of Simulation Software: A work in progress” from Learning Technology Review by Kurt Schmucker at Apple. It covered many of my favorite systems.
http://donhopkins.com/home/documents/taxonomy.pdf
>Chaim Gingold wrote a comprehensive "Gadget Background Survey" at HARC, which includes AgentSheets, Alan Kay's favorites: Rockey’s Boots and Robot Odyssey, and Chaim's amazing SimCity Reverse Diagrams and lots of great stuff I’d never seen before:
http://chaim.io/download/Gingold%20(2017)%20Gadget%20(1)%20S...
>Chaim Gingold has analyzed the SimCity (classic) code and visually documented how it works, in his beautiful "SimCity Reverse Diagrams": [...]
https://lively-web.org/users/Dan/uploads/SimCityReverseDiagr...
>Another great visual programming language for kids that supported defining cellular automata rules by example and visual programming:
>KidSim (later Cocoa, then Stagecast Creator) Smith, David C., Allen Cypher, and James Spohrer (1994) In KidSim graphical simulations are created via graphical rewrite rules, which also enables a kind of programming by demonstration. The creators argue that most people can use editor GUIs (e.g. paint programs), and can give directions, but cannot program. Their solution is to “get rid of the programming language” in favor of a philosophy grounded in GUI design:
>• Visibility. Relevant information is visible; causality is clear; modelessness. • Copy and modify, not make from scratch. • See and point, not remember and type. • Concrete, not abstract. • Familiar conceptual model. (“minimum translation distance”).
>They choose a symbolic simulation microworld as a domain because it leads to knowing, ownership, and motivation. All objects are agents which have appearances, properties (name value pairs), and rules.
>Programming by demonstration extends to using a calculator and dragging properties around to define conditionals. One of the creators of KidSim, David Smith, was also the creator of another graphical programming environment: Pygmalion.
>Smith, David C., Allen Cypher, and James Spohrer (1994)
>(Then I ran across TodePond's Spellular Automata video and realized I was preaching to the choir! TodePond wrote: "and stagecast creator is a big inspiration to me! I name-dropped it in a demo I did this week :D")
>Wow I did not realize I was evangelizing to the choir! This video by TodePond, is exactly what I was talking about, just much more beautiful than I'd imagined possible:
Spellular Automata:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU
Finally to know there is somebody who appreciates Dave Ackley's amazing work with the Moveable Feast Machine as much as I do!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24157104
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15560845
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkSXERxucPc
Todepond's work with Max Bittker on SandSpiel Studio is also thoroughly mind blowing:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34561910
https://studio.sandspiel.club/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTsy79wx4U