Notices by Adrian Cochrane (alcinnz@floss.social), page 38

Interpolation covers cases where you have 2 points onscreen or across time & we need to fill the intermediate space to make them more perceivable.

This takes some formula (if any, i.e. not identity) from 0 to 1 & scales it to fill the target space, to compute how to scale the intermediary values between those points.

Across space this gets called (primitive) vector graphics. Across time it is "animation".

3/4!

An important consideration in computer graphics is where to draw things. Matrices help here by geometric transforms (translation, rotation, resizing, skew, etc) in a way which through the power of algebra can trivially be combined without increasing compute costs on applying the resulting matrix.

A 2D matrix:
x' = ax + by + c
y' = dx + ey + f

Rotation involves trigonometry.

2/4!

There's a handful of techniques used all over computer graphics: matrix transforms, interpolation, & symbols. (I can see how these loosely resembles decompression...) I'll discuss each of these today!

Also there's physics sims & scanline algorithms, which I won't be covered . Not to mention lots of geometry!

Over the following days I'll discuss GPUs & some common rendering algorithms.

1/4!

“Almost every senior woman in computer science has that rep [for speaking up about problems]. Now when I hear, ‘Oh, she’s a problem,’ I’m like, Oh, so you’re saying she’s a senior woman?”

This feature article about @emilymbender and the deep problems in CS and AI, by Elizabeth Weil, is 🔥

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-emily-m-bender.html

Finishing my study of FreeType's Apple SFNT support there's a binary-parser for character-maps, validated against a selection of formats via a callback array.

The bulk of this file defines various implementations of FreeType's CMap class for each supported format it validates. Some of which requires support routines, mostly subparsers & (typically binary-search) lookups. Not to mention UTF8 iterators.

1/1 Fin on SFNT. Tomorrow: publish.

Reverse-engineering the Intel 8086 processor's HALT circuits - Ken Shirriff: http://www.righto.com/2023/01/reverse-engineering-intel-8086.html

Design can be free (part 2) - Scott Jenson: https://jenson.org/free2/

February update: things are taking shape - Lukasz Erecinski @ Pine64: https://www.pine64.org/2023/03/01/february-update-things-are-taking-shape/

You Are Not a Parrot - Elizabeth Weil @ NY Intelligencer interviewing Emily M. Bender: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-emily-m-bender.html

Start with something small - Go Make Things: https://gomakethings.com/start-with-something-small/

Though when learning Haskell I recommend tackling a non-trivial compute-heavy project...

Introducing the United States Place Sampler (USPS) - Leon Yin, Aaron Sankin, & (for Big Local News at Stanford) Joe Nudell @ The Markup: https://themarkup.org/still-loading/2023/03/02/introducing-the-united-states-place-sampler-usps

Python Web Conference 2023 - Paolo Melchiorre: https://www.paulox.net/2023/03/15/python-web-conf-2023/

PyCon DE 2023: https://www.paulox.net/2023/04/18/pycon-de-2023/

A tech educator roadmap - Go Make Things: https://gomakethings.com/a-tech-educator-roadmap/

That was easy! Generic positioning implemented in CatTrap...

And I've prepared to combine all my tree-traversals into a single routine!

I think I'll finish of my talk's slides, & see if I can get that compiling tomorrow... Then duplicate some of my unittesting on the generic type!

Shower thought: Why is nobody working on nice, modern OpenDocument editor apps?

Is it because there are no good backend libraries? If so, why is nobody working on those? Is the spec just bad? Too hard to find funding? Too boring a subject?

Do I know anyone with experience working on documents/office stuff, or has insights on the topic?

@tbernard A better answer to your question: Simply rendering documents takes a lot of effort, especially if you want to do a good job & avoid excluding anyone. It's a complex domain noone fully understands!

And editing has a few accessibility pitfalls too...

There's good libraries to build on, but Pango doesn't want to do this full job. I can't blame them. And anything else that's available has a monolithic architecture (browser-engines), or is very low-level.

@tbernard I hope my browserdev work could eventually be repurposed to those ends...

But I'm nowhere close yet!

@FirstProgenitor But don't you love X-Men? The previous Spiderman movies? We brought Patrick Stewart back! /s

Seriously feels like them saying those movies were better than what they're making now, & if that's the case I'd prefer to watch...

@dalias Well, that affordance is also why DNSSEC is moribund, so, pick your poison.

Nowadays most amount to write-only analog RAM from an electronic perspective. Most are based on that LCD tech, though others are made from material which emit light directly when exposed to a current. Without needing to manufacture millions of independent LEDs.

Then again I have seen massive low-res advertising screens made of independent LEDs!

LEDs are diodes made of Gallium which emits light. Light-Emitting Diodes.

3/3 Fin for today!