[x3d-public] A "new" basis for systems programming...shapes
John Carlson
yottzumm at gmail.com
Mon Mar 29 13:34:15 PDT 2021
So what if we could reprogram blender, unreal engine, and unity, among
other tools, in a "new" shape systems language?
Beyond the "shape" primitive and it's delegates, we would obviously need
a visual way to represent primitives: null, booleans, numbers and
strings. Assume there is a delegate of shape called Text, and
sub-classes and instances of Text for primitive classes and instances.
For data structures, we would use instances and sub-classes of Group and
Switch. We could have data structures for expressions, predicates and
operations. Operators would become as sub-classes and instances of the
Text shape.
It seems like we have the foundation of such a shape systems language
with X3D. We probably wouldn't have pointers at first, but aren't
pointers essentially implemented as variables (DEFs/USEs), and operators
(Text)? Just how many changes to X3D are required to make this shape
systems language in X3D?
Could someone estimate the effort to convert C/C++ to a shape systems
language and write a compiler for the shape systems language? How hard
would it be to convert a popular OS to a shape systems language?
How would one incorporate other holistic (non-systemic, impactful)
features into the shape systems language, such as motion capture, video
production, video capture, etc.?
Beyond duplicating the text environment, how can we leverage animation
in the systems language?
Just thinking aloud about X3Dv5.
Classic: http://www.charlespetzold.com/etc/CSAML.html
Remember, all textual programming languages *are* shape programming
languages. We're just trying to bring other things beside text into
the programming language (think of those stories that have little icons
instead of words at first, after that, animations).
Can we make SignWriting (think emojis as expressive as English) a
systems language?
:)
John
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