Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: AsciiDots – a 2D esoteric language inspired by circuits

github.com

11–20 of 34 posts

Re: Show HN: AsciiDots – a 2D esoteric language inspired by circuits

#11
This looks like a perfect skeleton for bringing Minecraft redstone to an ascii game like Dwarf Fortress. Very cool! Especially if you could design "sub-circuits" by zooming in, sort of like the chips in Robot Oddysey[0] or in the super circuit maker mod for Minecraft[1].

[0] http://www.formauri.es/personal/pgimeno/temp/RO/stereorecord...

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/supercircuitmaker/top/

Re: Show HN: AsciiDots – a 2D esoteric language inspired by circuits

#12
This reminds me of befunge[1], which is also a two dimensional programming language, and has been around for quite a while. This language looks a bit simpler and easier to understand, though. Neat.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Befunge

"[I]n Befunge, there is no comment syntax: to embed documentation in the code, the programmer simply routes the control flow around the 'comment' area, so that the text in that area is never executed"

Re: Show HN: AsciiDots – a 2D esoteric language inspired by circuits

#14
post #8

Author here, I'm open to any suggestions or feedback.

Neat idea, I really like it. The only comment I have is that the `__main__.py` looks like a bit like spaghetti with ~1200 lines, multiple classes, and scattered global state. Not really a big deal unless you plan on growing the project or using it as a portfolio piece. Also in my opinion the project really is a prime portfolio piece, it shows creativity, polish, and theoretical understanding.

Yeah. I rewrote the code with a state machine pattern but haven't uploaded the new code yet

Re: Show HN: AsciiDots – a 2D esoteric language inspired by circuits

#15
post #8

Author here, I'm open to any suggestions or feedback.

Neat idea, I really like it. The only comment I have is that the `__main__.py` looks like a bit like spaghetti with ~1200 lines, multiple classes, and scattered global state. Not really a big deal unless you plan on growing the project or using it as a portfolio piece. Also in my opinion the project really is a prime portfolio piece, it shows creativity, polish, and theoretical understanding.

Also, thanks!

Re: Show HN: AsciiDots – a 2D esoteric language inspired by circuits

#16

This looks like a perfect skeleton for bringing Minecraft redstone to an ascii game like Dwarf Fortress. Very cool! Especially if you could design "sub-circuits" by zooming in, sort of like the chips in Robot Oddysey[0] or in the super circuit maker mod for Minecraft[1]. [0] http://www.formauri.es/personal/pgimeno/temp/RO/stereorecord... [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/supercircuitmaker/top/

That's really interesting. I will look into that. Right now, subcircuits are created by using "libraries" to define custom characters (typically letters).

Re: Show HN: AsciiDots – a 2D esoteric language inspired by circuits

#17

Author here, I'm open to any suggestions or feedback.

How are potential infinite loops handled? Say you reflect, multiply, and reflect back.

Right now, it just loops, without freezing the computer.

I think this caused the try-it-online server to crash. (Yeah, it was dumb to have it work like that online)

Re: Show HN: AsciiDots – a 2D esoteric language inspired by circuits

#19
A friend of mine made an even more minimal thing. Turns out he still has an internet version:

http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/ajn44/linelogic2/

You basically have arbitrary-arity NOR gates, that are your only way of splitting signals. From it you can make anything from XORs to flip-flops to clock signals to anything you want. I remember him making a very fancy 8-segment display counter (that actually counted up over time) in one version of it back in the day.

Re: Show HN: AsciiDots – a 2D esoteric language inspired by circuits

#20
post #10

Author here, I'm open to any suggestions or feedback.

Cool idea -- curious if you looked much at the classic 2D esolangs like Befunge in developing this

Funny thing-- I read about Befunge for the first time in the middle of development.

Befunge is a really fun language, but I decided to continue development of AsciiDots because I find it more legible (not to discredit Befunge)

Post reply on HN