GH GUI for webdesign?

As far as I understand it GH's user interface is essentially an intelligent and intuitive bridge creating a script (program code), right?

Couldn't this same principle be used for HTML, PHP, jscript, younameit ... coding?

Just thinking the potential could be crazy enormous, or am I missing something?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on June 29, 2013 at 4:20pm

As far as I understand it GH's user interface is essentially an intelligent and intuitive bridge creating a script (program code), right?

No. There's no script or program code running behind the scenes. Grasshopper components are already compiled into different assemblies (dlls) and they communicate directly with each other. At no point is the network of components and parameters converted to textual code which is then compiled/interpreted.

This is an approach I could have taken at the start but I chose not to. I thought then -and still think now- that the benefits of having a single textual algorithm do not outweigh the costs. After all, there's no point in having textual code unless that code is readable and editable. That is very difficult to achieve.

Couldn't this same principle be used for HTML, PHP, jscript, younameit ... coding?

Yes. The principle on which Grasshopper is not build could be used for all sorts of programming. However you will notice how much harder it is in GH to define custom conditional statements and loops than it would be in a textual programming language.

Basically it comes down to this: if you can already write code in VB.NET or C# it is unlikely that GH will be a meaningful addition to your tool-set. If you cannot yet read/write code then there's no point in seeing any either.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Tirol, Austria

Permalink Reply by Duncan W on July 2, 2013 at 7:19am

if you can already write code in VB.NET or C# it is unlikely that GH will be a meaningful addition to your tool-set. If you cannot yet read/write code then there's no point in seeing any either.

Well the point was not having to see any code because you can't produce it the traditional way, which was where I thought GH could be used for (in principle). But I understand from your explanation above that this isn't how GH works, okay. It was just a thought I had.

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on July 2, 2013 at 8:59am