Jay McGavren's Journal

2009-12-05

A computer can mimic the style of a classical composer by analyzing sheet music. I bet GUIs could be (partially) generated for command-line tools. You just analyze how people mapped a CLI tool’s functions to a GUI wrapper (say, Git vs. GitX), then apply the rules you learn to other CLI tools.

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2009-12-04

RubyConf in 22 Minutes video just posted by @greggpollack, featuring my handsome mug! I give the elevator pitch version of our Jemini talk.

http://blog.envylabs.com/2009/12/rubyconf-videos/

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2009-12-03

Processing on Acid...

Got Ruby-Processing working with external libraries, so I can finally try it out with Ruby On Acid! My problem was that I couldn’t (or didn’t know how to) set the ruby load path with ruby-processing’s included “rp5” tool. But on Marc Chung’s advice, I tried loading it into vanilla JRuby (had to do a small hack, but it worked). From there I was able to set $RUBYLIB, include it from a gem, whatever.

It’s fast, too, at least compared to wxRuby on MRI 1.8.7. My dual-core MacBook can draw 3000 shapes a second without breaking a sweat.

picture-8.pngpicture-7.pngpicture-6.png

OK, so here’s how to try it out yourself:

Save to acid_sketch.rb:

require 'rubygems'
require 'ruby-processing'
require 'rubyonacid/factories/meta'
require 'rubyonacid/factories/combination'
require 'rubyonacid/factories/constant'
require 'rubyonacid/factories/flash'
require 'rubyonacid/factories/loop'
require 'rubyonacid/factories/random'
require 'rubyonacid/factories/repeat'
require 'rubyonacid/factories/sine'
require 'rubyonacid/factories/skip'

class Sketch < Processing::App

  def setup
    @f = create_factory
    @resetter = RubyOnAcid::SkipFactory.new(0.9999)
    background 0
    smooth
    ellipse_mode CENTER
    rect_mode CENTER
  end
  def draw
    10.times do
      fill(
        @f.get(:red, :max => 255),
        @f.get(:green, :max => 255),
        @f.get(:blue, :max => 255),
        @f.get(:alpha, :max => 255)
      )
      no_stroke
      ellipse(
        @f.get(:x, :max => width),
        @f.get(:y, :max => height),
        @f.get(:width, :max => 100),
        @f.get(:height, :max => 100)
      )
      @f.reset_assignments if @resetter.boolean(:reset)
    end
  end

  def create_factory

    random_factory = RubyOnAcid::RandomFactory.new

    source_factories = []
    #Loop factories loop from 0.0 to 1.0 (or 1.0 to 0.0 if the increment value is negative).
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::LoopFactory.new(0.01)
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::LoopFactory.new(-0.01)
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::LoopFactory.new(0.001)
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::LoopFactory.new(-0.001)
    #Constant factories always return the same value,
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::ConstantFactory.new(rand)
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::ConstantFactory.new(rand)
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::FlashFactory.new(rand(100))
    #Sine factories produce a "wave" pattern.
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::SineFactory.new(0.1)
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::SineFactory.new(-0.1)
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::SineFactory.new(0.01)
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::SineFactory.new(-0.01)
    #A RepeatFactory wraps another factory, queries it, and repeats the same value a certain number of times.
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::RepeatFactory.new(
      RubyOnAcid::LoopFactory.new(random_factory.within(:increment, -0.1, 0.1)),
      random_factory.get(:interval, :min => 2, :max => 100)
    )
    source_factories << RubyOnAcid::RepeatFactory.new(
      RubyOnAcid::SineFactory.new(random_factory.within(:increment, -0.1, 0.1)),
      random_factory.get(:interval, :min => 2, :max => 100)
    )
    #A CombinationFactory combines the values of two or more other factories.
    combination_factory = RubyOnAcid::CombinationFactory.new
    2.times do
      combination_factory.source_factories << source_factories[rand(source_factories.length)]
    end
    source_factories << combination_factory

    #The MetaFactory pulls requested value types from the other factories.
    meta_factory = RubyOnAcid::MetaFactory.new
    meta_factory.factory_pool = source_factories

    meta_factory

  end
end

Processing::SKETCH_PATH = ""

Sketch.new :title => "Ruby On Acid", :width => 800, :height => 600, :full_screen => false
jay@dandelion:~/Projects/ruby-processing
$ sudo jruby -S gem install ruby-processing
jay@dandelion:~/Projects/ruby-processing
$ sudo jruby -S gem install rubyonacid
jay@dandelion:~/Projects/ruby-processing
$ jruby acid_sketch.rb

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2009-11-22

RubyConf wrapup...

RubyConf was awesome, and I’d like to think we made our contribution. The Jemini talk generated a lot of interested questions, and I’m pretty happy with the approach of using a screencast instead of slides (though we’ll see how it turns out in the Confreaks video). Last night Logan and I set up in the lobby with Life-Tank and our collection of XBox controllers, which attracted quite a few players and comments of “I gotta try this library when I get home”.

Enjoyed the Bay Area Computer Music Technology meetup at Pier 38, too. Got to promote Ruby On Acid, too. I showed off the usual graphical stuff, then the 8-bit PCM/WAV (“drunk Atari 2600”) sound and MIDI demos that I hacked together for the meetup. The audio demos need some experimentation before they’re ready for prime time, but I’d say the same of most things shown that evening. The other presenters clearly had more music composition education and/or experience, but I got a surprisingly warm reception anyway.

Had a lot of fun in SF. Great conference, great city, great people. If the right company is hiring I will definitely consider moving here.

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2009-11-22

How not to dine in San Francisco...

The plan was sushi, Golden Gate, jazz bar, hotel. When Logan and Stacey and their 18-month-old joined us, it became sushi, hotel (kid needs his sleep), golden gate, jazz bar, hotel.

What finally happened, though, was french cuisine, impound lot, hotel.

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