8 ms·

Waterbear - a visual language for Javacript

75 points by toni 15y ago

agazso 15y ago
A working demo would be useful to see how to use this after all.
- rauljara 15y ago
  There is a demo. There are a number of controls on the top right, and one is labeled "Demos", though there is only one demo at the moment, and it doesn't seem complete. I suspect this is still very much a work in progress. I seriously doubt the author intended for it to be shown.
  - warmfuzzykitten 15y ago
    It doesn't seem to do anything.
    - benatkin 15y ago
      My experience exactly. I tried writing my own script and it didn't work, and then I loaded the demo script and it didn't work. I think a screencast would be nice even if it never gets broken again.
iambot 15y ago
wow that looks brilliant (from what I can see), do you think its at all useful to people that actually know javascript? or is it more of a tool for those that dont/are learning?
- evangineer 15y ago
  From the github page, the intention is that it's an introductory educational programming tool, that provides a concrete visual syntax that's easier for kids to get to grips with than the usual textual one.
- windsurfer 15y ago
  It looks really useful as an add-on to a level editor for a game. Custom scripts that designers can create!
Sudarshan 15y ago
Awesome this is just like http://scratch.mit.edu http://scratch.mit.edu and google has a product called app inventor. http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/ http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/ Hope it is now easily accessible as a web app... Cool UI.
tluyben2 15y ago
Nice work! GPL I hope?
- rst 15y ago
  Apache license, v2, per the source at github: https://github.com/dethe/waterbear https://github.com/dethe/waterbear
  - tluyben2 15y ago
    Oops, clicked too fast on the controls to read. Stupid. Thanks!
robinduckett 15y ago
Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token {
joenorton 15y ago
Wow, I now know what what the hell a 'water bear' is. Cool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade
nprincigalli 15y ago
Might want to check MIT's OpenBlocks ( http://education.mit.edu/openblocks http://education.mit.edu/openblocks ), which is related to Scratch (listed as inspiration by Waterbear) and includes code from StarLogo (slcodeblocks) (also listed as inspiration) and is being refactored "to make the code more amenable to inclusion to other projects". One of the recent uses of OpenBlocks was Google's AppInventor. Kudos to the Waterbear author! Loved to see it done with JS, HTML5 and CSS3. One less thing in my list of "things that I want to see in the world but may have to build it myself". Watching the repo already! :)
Klonoar 15y ago
Ah, neat, Scratch in the browser. About time. ;) I'm very drunk and will edit this later. Props!
sfvisser 15y ago
Reminds me of Eros (http://conal.net/papers/Eros/ http://conal.net/papers/Eros/) and tangible functional programming (http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/TV http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/TV). Both by Conal Elliott. edit: Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJ8N0giqzw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJ8N0giqzw
ericz 15y ago
Try adding -webkit-user-select: none; -khtml-user-select: none; -moz-user-select: none; -o-user-select: none; user-select: none; So text in the blocks can't be selected
nicetryguy 15y ago
Does not work on android chrome. Can't even scroll
snorkel 15y ago
Cool editor UI works in FF 4 but Run does nothing, not even for the demo script.
AshleysBrain 15y ago
Shameless plug: my project is a visual programming language - which is actually seriously usable for real things - and exports to Javascript + HTML5 canvas: http://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=8468 http://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=8468 End shameless plug :)
rman666 15y ago
Can't get it to run. I'm in Chrome. Trying FF now.
nitrogen 15y ago
Obligatory link to my own visual programming language targeting home/building automation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p36xoBZVQ8c&feature=player_detailpage#t=246s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p36xoBZVQ8c&feature=playe... (blog post: http://nitrogen.posterous.com/kinect-home-automation-goes-html5 http://nitrogen.posterous.com/kinect-home-automation-goes-ht...). P.S. Running the included Waterbear demo script seems to do nothing on Firefox 4 and Chrome 12 on Linux.
- dkersten 15y ago
  Thats very cool! The Kinect video with regions reminds me of my uni undergrad final year project (except that your region stuff is much cooler than ours was - cheaper too): http://dublindan.posterous.com/things-ive-worked-on-1 http://dublindan.posterous.com/things-ive-worked-on-1 EDIT: pasted wrong link first time :-/

75 points by toni 15y ago

agazso 15y ago

A working demo would be useful to see how to use this after all.

rauljara 15y ago
There is a demo. There are a number of controls on the top right, and one is labeled "Demos", though there is only one demo at the moment, and it doesn't seem complete. I suspect this is still very much a work in progress. I seriously doubt the author intended for it to be shown.
- warmfuzzykitten 15y ago
  It doesn't seem to do anything.
  - benatkin 15y ago
    My experience exactly. I tried writing my own script and it didn't work, and then I loaded the demo script and it didn't work. I think a screencast would be nice even if it never gets broken again.

iambot 15y ago

wow that looks brilliant (from what I can see), do you think its at all useful to people that actually know javascript? or is it more of a tool for those that dont/are learning?

evangineer 15y ago
From the github page, the intention is that it's an introductory educational programming tool, that provides a concrete visual syntax that's easier for kids to get to grips with than the usual textual one.
windsurfer 15y ago
It looks really useful as an add-on to a level editor for a game. Custom scripts that designers can create!

Sudarshan 15y ago

Awesome this is just like http://scratch.mit.edu http://scratch.mit.edu and google has a product called app inventor. http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/ http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/ Hope it is now easily accessible as a web app... Cool UI.

tluyben2 15y ago

Nice work! GPL I hope?

rst 15y ago
Apache license, v2, per the source at github: https://github.com/dethe/waterbear https://github.com/dethe/waterbear
- tluyben2 15y ago
  Oops, clicked too fast on the controls to read. Stupid. Thanks!

robinduckett 15y ago

Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token {

joenorton 15y ago

Wow, I now know what what the hell a 'water bear' is. Cool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade

nprincigalli 15y ago

Might want to check MIT's OpenBlocks ( http://education.mit.edu/openblocks http://education.mit.edu/openblocks ), which is related to Scratch (listed as inspiration by Waterbear) and includes code from StarLogo (slcodeblocks) (also listed as inspiration) and is being refactored "to make the code more amenable to inclusion to other projects". One of the recent uses of OpenBlocks was Google's AppInventor. Kudos to the Waterbear author! Loved to see it done with JS, HTML5 and CSS3. One less thing in my list of "things that I want to see in the world but may have to build it myself". Watching the repo already! :)

Klonoar 15y ago

Ah, neat, Scratch in the browser. About time. ;) I'm very drunk and will edit this later. Props!

sfvisser 15y ago

Reminds me of Eros (http://conal.net/papers/Eros/ http://conal.net/papers/Eros/) and tangible functional programming (http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/TV http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/TV). Both by Conal Elliott. edit: Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJ8N0giqzw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJ8N0giqzw

ericz 15y ago

Try adding -webkit-user-select: none; -khtml-user-select: none; -moz-user-select: none; -o-user-select: none; user-select: none; So text in the blocks can't be selected

nicetryguy 15y ago

Does not work on android chrome. Can't even scroll

snorkel 15y ago

Cool editor UI works in FF 4 but Run does nothing, not even for the demo script.

AshleysBrain 15y ago

Shameless plug: my project is a visual programming language - which is actually seriously usable for real things - and exports to Javascript + HTML5 canvas: http://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=8468 http://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=8468 End shameless plug :)

rman666 15y ago

Can't get it to run. I'm in Chrome. Trying FF now.

nitrogen 15y ago

Obligatory link to my own visual programming language targeting home/building automation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p36xoBZVQ8c&feature=player_detailpage#t=246s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p36xoBZVQ8c&feature=playe... (blog post: http://nitrogen.posterous.com/kinect-home-automation-goes-html5 http://nitrogen.posterous.com/kinect-home-automation-goes-ht...). P.S. Running the included Waterbear demo script seems to do nothing on Firefox 4 and Chrome 12 on Linux.

dkersten 15y ago
Thats very cool! The Kinect video with regions reminds me of my uni undergrad final year project (except that your region stuff is much cooler than ours was - cheaper too): http://dublindan.posterous.com/things-ive-worked-on-1 http://dublindan.posterous.com/things-ive-worked-on-1 EDIT: pasted wrong link first time :-/