Try   HackMD

Waterbear

tags: sketchdance

What are next steps in the resurrection of Waterbear?

Waterbear is a visual language, ideally supported underneath by a simple text language (Moonshine)Moonshine

Goals

Among the goals of this rewrite are:

  • Bring back the toolkit nature of Waterbear, allowing people to easily create their own block-based languages with it.
  • Make the UI more powerful, allowing customizations and support for tutorials and walkthroughs
  • Allow demi-modes between text and blocks, to type in equations, for instance.
  • Allow blocks to wrap native code (in whatever language is native)
  • Improved embedding, allowing Waterbear scripts to be embedded in any web page
  • Vastly improved text output producing scripts which can dropped into a browser and run without further work
  • Round-trip from script mode using the Moonshine language, a text-based programming language designed to map well to blocks
  • Improve undo/redo, copy/paste and other infrastructure
  • Compile to JS for speed or run block-by block for debugging
  • Collaborative: invite others to contribute to your Waterbear projects
  • Block-level support for testing
  • Many, many more example programs and tutorials

Reasons for existing (vs. using Blockly)

  • Textish mode: Switch view of block(s) so editing is closer to text but still constrained
  • More textish mode: specific areas like editing formulas
  • Zooming: Open a block to see/modify it's implementation
  • Substitute: Replace block in-place with block matching signature
  • Moonshine: Evolving together, so there is a text-based language which maps cleanly to and from blocks
  • Nesting: Leverage the DOM for lightweight implementation, speed, and easier debugging
  • Goal: Not just a block language, but an environment for easing between blocks and text

Programming for the Fun of It

Notes for potential book, grant application(s), course syllabus, etc.

  • Waterbear - the official Moonshine IDE incorporating blocks
  • Bootleg - experimental OS
  • Tardigrade - the block toolkit
  • Moss Piglet - the IDE toolkit
  • Moonshine - language that maps cleanly to and from blocks
  • Alley - server component to break scripts out of the browser (for Arduino, shell scripts, Minecraft, etc.)
  • Xastle - social media layer
  • Moat - secure anonymous file transfer
  • SketchDance Suite - web site combining Waterbear with other tools

Next Steps

  • Make tabs/sockets nicer
  • Minimal version of Moonshine to support current blocks
  • Show text (Moonshine) and make round-trippable
  • Allow blocks that make new blocks
  • Move literal arrays out of main script and into form popups
  • Import libs, get new blocks
  • Reconfigurable UI
  • GUI for tweaking values (dragging)
  • Moonshine -> non JS as demo
  • Zooming
  • Duplicate some missing Scratch blocks?
  • More scratch-like
  • Built-in tree shaking for exporting single file
  • Documentation of what each module is for, why they exist the way they do, how to add a feature, tips to finding/fixing bugs,

Pre-history of Waterbear

  • Scratch
  • Logo
  • Kutia
  • Dandelion

Programming for Artists

Other

  • A toolkit for languages
  • A universal language
  • Translating code into blocks
  • Higher-level blocks, forms, graphs

What makes a Waterbear block?

  • Signature
    • Namespace
    • Name
    • Types/Arguments
    • Type/return value
  • Block type
  • Arguments / Defaults
  • Visible strings for localization
  • Open/closed state (local, not persisted)
  • Template (?)
  • Breakpoint (local, not persisted)
  • Canonical URL
  • Version
  • Author/history

–

Open Question: Is it more practical to build a different block language to support a different output language (i.e.: Java, C, Python) or to use Moonshine for the blocks but have a way to compile Moonshine to each output language. Ugh, is that what Blockly is doing with LISP? Oh, apparently Blockly doesn't do that anymore, it is implemented entirely with Javascript, blocks can be defined in either JS or JSON, and it can output a number of other languages, blocks are SVG elements and it has been localized. Is there even a reason for creating Waterbear anymore?

A: Yes, Waterbear is still useful. I want to be able to switch a single (or a selected set) block into text-ish mode, where editing is closer to text but still constrained. Also, for specific areas like editing formulas there may even be a "more textish" mode. Blockly doens't implement this, or zooming, or other techniques I want to use to bridge the gaps between blocks and text. For instance, bridging between separate blocks and drop-down functions (like the Math blocks in Scratch) by allowing blocks to be substituted in place if their signatures match (from a context menu).

Ideally, Waterbear (when combined with Moonshine), won't be just a block language, but an environment for easing the transition between blocks and text.

Inspiration

  • Stop Writing Dead Programs Erlang at 15:33: Actor model, shared-nothing state, supervisor trees. Kill anything any time. Introspection tools
Last changed by 
 
Dethe Elza
Former web developer / programmer turned library technician. I lead code clubs to help everyone from kids to seniors learn to code.
0
553

Read more

Operating Systems

type: slide

May 13, 2024
Moonshine

Moonshine is a strongly typed text-based language intended to be represented well and completely by blocks, to be implemented easily in JavaScript, but compilable to native code efficiently. It is one piece of a project that includes Tardigrade (the block representation), Bootleg (the research OS), Moss Piglet (the UI), and Waterbear (that ties these all together). Waterbear - the official Moonshine IDE incorporating blocks Bootleg - experimental OS Tardigrade - the block toolkit Moss Piglet - the IDE toolkit Moonshine - language that maps cleanly to and from blocks Alley - server component to break scripts out of the browser (for Arduino, shell scripts, Minecraft, etc.) Xastle - social media layer Moat - secure anonymous file transfer

Feb 26, 2023
Sketchdance Suite

Description Sketchdance is the working title for an in-progress suite of web applications that are intended to work together to be greater than the sum of their parts. The suite includes intentionally simple content creation tools (Shimmy, Veil, Jitter, and Gammaray), more advanced programming tools (Moonshine, Waterbear, Plugh, Joker), a whole bunch of underlying, re-usable tools to put these together (Tardigrade, Moss Piglet, Alley), some tools for sharing, both privately (Moat) and socially (Xastle), some smaller re-usable components (Halo, Roomatoom), and some larger projects that don't fit in any of the categories, but leverage many pieces of Sketchdance (Garden). Descriptions and status of all of these are below, along with some initial ideas of how they fit together. Because there is a lot of overlap between these web applications goals, i.e., Drawing Board, Greenscreen, and Stop Motion are all very similar, there can be benefits to developing them in parallel and each can be informed by the others. Waterbear and Garden are different but might be useful to integrate with both content creation and sharing. I want two ways of storing results: shared to a social site (based on the Scratch community) or posted to a temporary private server to be downloaded later. Collectively, this is the Sketchpad Suite. Pick a random project to work on Earlier version of this document with even more projects A note on epistemic statuses

Jan 5, 2023
Bootleg OS

An experimental OS, ideally written in Moonshine Bootleg is my idea for a tiny, personal operating system. It is inspired by: STEPS Toward the Reinvention of Programming, i.e., the idea of an OS + core apps in < 30,000 lines of code xv6 A simple unix-like OS xv6, the good parts A constructive look at TempleOS TempleOS, the good parts Plan 9 / 9Front

Jan 5, 2023
Read more from Dethe Elza
Published on HackMD