GHtxt: I'm trying a little experiment and need your help.

Please would you spare some time to put together the following definition as an experiment in GH text notation. The file of times is attached and the curve can be anything. Note that there is only one instance of component on the canvas.

[Curve] set one Curve
[Path] = "%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\times.txt"
[Path]-->[Read File]
[Read File]-->(T)[Text Split]
[Panel = :]-->(C)[Text Split]
[Text Split]-->(L)[List Item]
[List Item](i)-->(A)[Multiplication]
[Slider=60]-->(B)[Multiplication]
[Multiplication]-->(A)[Addition]
[List Item](+1)-->(B)[Addition]
[Addition]--><Flatten>(V)[Relative Differences]
[Relative Differences]-->[Mass Addition]
[Mass Addition](Pr)-->[Bounds]
[Mass Addition](Pr)-->(V)[ReMap]
[Bounds]-->(S)[ReMap]
[Curve]--><Reparameterize>(C)[Evaluate Curve]
[ReMap](R)-->(t)[Evaluate Curve]
[Evaluate Curve](P)-->(L)[Text Tag 3D]
[Read File]-->(T)[Text Tag 3D]

Please post an image of the definition that you create.

More the merrier and please feel free to comment on your experience.

Attachments:

times.txt, 1 KB

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nick Tyrer on May 1, 2014 at 4:45am

Hey Danny

Completed. Interesting experience creating that from text instructions, just to note, you have 'multiply' instead of 'multiplication' and on the remap, you haven't described which output to connect to evaluate curve.

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on May 1, 2014 at 5:04am

Thanks Nick, I've fixed the OP.

Permalink Reply by Will Pearson on May 1, 2014 at 6:39am

Interesting that I ended up with a very similar layout to Nick (I wasn't peeking, honest).

The notation definitely has it's limitations (how do you handle multiple component instances, for example?).

What use do you have in mind for this notation?

On an unrelated note it's slightly frustrating that Grasshopper wouldn't recognise "%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\times.txt" as a file path.

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on May 1, 2014 at 7:21am

Hi Will,

The notation definitely has it's limitations (how do you handle multiple component instances, for example?).

Yup. Not sure yet, open to suggestions.

What use do you have in mind for this notation?

Yup. Not sure yet, open to suggestions... I have occasionally had problems uploading Images to Ning Posts and last month it was particularly bad. In one case I posted this reply. But when I viewed it latter on my Galaxy Tablet it didn't look the same. So It got me thinking of an alternative textual notation that I could even implement from either a phone or tablet. This then got me looking at Notepad++ and creating an syntax highlighting and autocompletion of Component names etc. But before I get to far into playing with this I just wanted to see if it makes sense.

There are of course further possibilities with Parsing this back into a working definition or exporting one etc.

On an unrelated note it's slightly frustrating that Grasshopper wouldn't recognise "%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\times.txt" as a file path.

How are you setting it? Or do you mean as a panel input?

Thanks for your time and say hi to Poetry Joe for me :)

Permalink Reply by Ángel Linares on May 1, 2014 at 9:09am

Nice idea! What about creating simple IDs for different instances of the same component? I see where you want to go with this and is very cool!

If you want some help to think about it, just say it!

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on May 1, 2014 at 10:49am

What problem is this notation solving? Who is expected to write this data? Who is expected to parse this data? How -if at all- is ambiguity handled? Is it supposed to handle all properties of a Grasshopper document, or only the ones that matter logically?

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on May 1, 2014 at 11:08am

Basically its for me. When using a device without GH to give clear instructions for simple problems.

Also I thought about the possibility of using a remote session to a PC to interact with GH but without the issues of touch screen UI but this is pipe dream at this stage.

EMail an input to myself, remote session, save attachment, parse file to GH, create image, save file, email back attachments. Who knows...

Permalink Reply by Ángel Linares on May 1, 2014 at 11:19am

Wops, you were faster :P

Permalink Reply by Ángel Linares on May 1, 2014 at 11:16am

Power users and enthusiasts that want to be able to create Grasshopper definitions without using a computer (using a phone, tablet, or a computer without grasshopper)...it could be nicer to gave an "offline editor" not linked with Rhino that let people work using just correct logic and type connections between nodes using a proper GUI, but than requires more development that perhaps this syntax and a GH plug-in to run it.

Permalink Reply by Ángel Linares on May 1, 2014 at 1:02pm

And as Danny used it this afternoon: just to communicate GH definitions to other people in plain text (in the forum, giving instructions by email, etc)...

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on May 1, 2014 at 1:35pm

Ok, so it's a functional only notation that is meant to be both writable and readable by humans?

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Permalink Reply by Ángel Linares on May 1, 2014 at 2:35pm

And it could be interpreted by a plugin to build a real GH definition if needed (as far as I understood).