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CindyJS: A framework for interactive mathematical content on the web

198 points by OmarShehata 6y ago

kkaranth 6y ago
This looks very cool. I'm gonna be using this soon! I am curious why you'd create a new scripting language for this, how is JS limiting for building these visualizations?
- eggy 6y ago
  It grew out of Cinderella, which released its first commercial version in 1998, so JavaScript was only around a few years, and did not have the potential it does today. I found Cinderella about 5 years ago, and I like the way CindyJS has evolved for geometry and math needs.
krastanov 6y ago
Thank you for sharing this, I am generally interested in any tool that makes the creation of explorable explanations easier. However, while I am passably competent as an educator/physicist/js dev, I have a hard time understanding what the use case for this library is. Is it a plotting library mainly? A plotting library with latex built in? An ODE solver? An UI-building toolkit? The showcase gallery does not make that clear and it is pretty difficult to find example snippets that go to the core of the library and how its creator imagines it being used. Could you elaborate on why I should use this instead of vanilla javascript + my favorite UI library + my favorite canvas library? Edit: these slides seem to cover some of my questions.
- esperent 6y ago
  I write tutorials - they're mainly CG related but they get a bit mathsy at times. I'd love to use this library to create interactive figures. It would be overkill for my use case, but if my writing was just a little bit more math focused I'd be all over this.
runawaybottle 6y ago
Kleinian fractals is super fun to play with: https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Kleinian/ https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Kleinian/
- AriaMinaei 6y ago
  It is! I'm having a blast with the optics simulation: https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Optics/ https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Optics/
  - eggy 6y ago
    You should try Algodoo with the lasers and optics. It's free now. It is a 2d physics sandbox with a great GUI.
    - AriaMinaei 6y ago
      Excited to try it! Thanks!
tvalentius 6y ago
This is so good, the Escher & Droste effect sample is one of my favorite : https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Droste/ https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Droste/
jqgatsby 6y ago
For those trying to contextualize this, CindyJS is based on Cinderella, a geometry framework developed by Jürgen Richter-Gebert. He also wrote a book called "Perspectives on Projective Geometry" where he goes into full detail about the mathematics behind this framework. I had previously created a hackernews thread about this (amazing) book, to see if anyone wanted to do a reading group with me on it, but didn't get many takers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23371641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23371641
- nikpmup 6y ago
  Thanks for this link. I wasn't aware of the book, but this "theoretical background" page on the Cinderella website made a big impression on me years ago. Maybe it would work as a taster for your proposed group. https://doc.cinderella.de/tiki-index.php?page=Theoretical+Background https://doc.cinderella.de/tiki-index.php?page=Theoretical+Ba...
- vanderZwan 6y ago
  > Jürgen Richter-Gebert Ah, that explains the "Adminfiles Zugefügt" commit https://github.com/CindyJS/CindyJS/commit/2ccb3e07b0bde0477782ac550a3849c83609e8fc https://github.com/CindyJS/CindyJS/commit/2ccb3e07b0bde04777...
Jahak 6y ago
Beautiful

198 points by OmarShehata 6y ago

This looks very cool. I'm gonna be using this soon! I am curious why you'd create a new scripting language for this, how is JS limiting for building these visualizations?

eggy 6y ago
It grew out of Cinderella, which released its first commercial version in 1998, so JavaScript was only around a few years, and did not have the potential it does today. I found Cinderella about 5 years ago, and I like the way CindyJS has evolved for geometry and math needs.

krastanov 6y ago

Thank you for sharing this, I am generally interested in any tool that makes the creation of explorable explanations easier. However, while I am passably competent as an educator/physicist/js dev, I have a hard time understanding what the use case for this library is. Is it a plotting library mainly? A plotting library with latex built in? An ODE solver? An UI-building toolkit? The showcase gallery does not make that clear and it is pretty difficult to find example snippets that go to the core of the library and how its creator imagines it being used. Could you elaborate on why I should use this instead of vanilla javascript + my favorite UI library + my favorite canvas library? Edit: these slides seem to cover some of my questions.

esperent 6y ago
I write tutorials - they're mainly CG related but they get a bit mathsy at times. I'd love to use this library to create interactive figures. It would be overkill for my use case, but if my writing was just a little bit more math focused I'd be all over this.

runawaybottle 6y ago

Kleinian fractals is super fun to play with: https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Kleinian/ https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Kleinian/

AriaMinaei 6y ago
It is! I'm having a blast with the optics simulation: https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Optics/ https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Optics/
- eggy 6y ago
  You should try Algodoo with the lasers and optics. It's free now. It is a 2d physics sandbox with a great GUI.
  - AriaMinaei 6y ago
    Excited to try it! Thanks!

tvalentius 6y ago

This is so good, the Escher & Droste effect sample is one of my favorite : https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Droste/ https://cindyjs.org/gallery/main/Droste/

jqgatsby 6y ago

For those trying to contextualize this, CindyJS is based on Cinderella, a geometry framework developed by Jürgen Richter-Gebert. He also wrote a book called "Perspectives on Projective Geometry" where he goes into full detail about the mathematics behind this framework. I had previously created a hackernews thread about this (amazing) book, to see if anyone wanted to do a reading group with me on it, but didn't get many takers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23371641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23371641

nikpmup 6y ago
Thanks for this link. I wasn't aware of the book, but this "theoretical background" page on the Cinderella website made a big impression on me years ago. Maybe it would work as a taster for your proposed group. https://doc.cinderella.de/tiki-index.php?page=Theoretical+Background https://doc.cinderella.de/tiki-index.php?page=Theoretical+Ba...
vanderZwan 6y ago
> Jürgen Richter-Gebert Ah, that explains the "Adminfiles Zugefügt" commit https://github.com/CindyJS/CindyJS/commit/2ccb3e07b0bde0477782ac550a3849c83609e8fc https://github.com/CindyJS/CindyJS/commit/2ccb3e07b0bde04777...

Jahak 6y ago

Beautiful