http://www.socialfiction.org/dotwalk/dummies.html
socialfiction | psychogeography | .walk
THE TECHNOLOGY WILL FIND USES FOR THE STREET ON IT'S OWN
programming .walk for dummies
Example 1
// Classic.walkRepeat
{
1 st street left
2 nd street right
2 nd street left
}
This .walk example shows the classic generative psychogeographical algorithm, that urban exploration haiku, written down like a pseudo-computer language .
Example 2
// T = Time (in minutes)
// E = Exportcode
// C = Counter
E = 2
C = 0
Repeat
{
X = E
1 st street left
2 nd street right
X street left
When 2 agents meet
{
Exchange E
C + 1
}
Count T 0 to 60
If time = 60
{
Abort to Root
Print C to
socialfiction.org
}
}
Or in straightforward English:
"Your export code is 2
Repeat the following instructions; walk the first street left, second street right, then you take the street left that is indicated as your export code.
Every time you meet another psychogeographer you exchange export codes. This new code will change the 3rth turn.
Remember how often you exchange export code.
When you have walked for one hour you return to the place you are supposed to meet.
Once arrived there report the number of encounters to socialfiction.org."
For this simple talk this would do just as well. But when, like in the examples coming up next, the functions the applet will have to perform are getting more complicated a verbal explanation will require a lot more text of a very dense nature as the instructions must be interpretable in one way only. Symbolic logic serves the purpose of single minded communication much better than any natural language.
All the action happens between the { } after the Repeat command. Also notice that in this applet individual agents participating in an experiment are connected through the exchange of their E (Export code). This is a feature that was not available in the first example but without which it would be impossible to design a psychogeographical computer: an interconnected bunch of small applets, called .walk software (or if you like walkware) that runs (or rather walks) on top of the hardware, the street grid.
[three more .walk examples can be found at www.socialfiction.org]
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last updated 22-06-2003
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