Origami and Programming | Hacker News Reader

Origami and Programming

medium.com

69 pointsamitzur14 comments

Semi-related to this: There's an MIT OCW course on algorithmic folding taught by Erik Demaine.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...

Indeed, Eric Demain is amazing. Thanks for the reference. There's a lot to be discussed about computational origami and computer science. And there are many materials on the subject. I was trying to also touch the behavioral aspect of the connection between being a programmer and a folder.

Wow, i've never been so instantly interested in something. I didn't even know this was a field. Cool!!

Interesting comparison. While the article relates the two at a somewhat meta level, I've often had this fairly visceral feeling that programming in lisp or haskell is like folding an origami figure. The strange bit is that I don't know the abcs of origami, and yet this feeling doesn't escape me. For example, I've dreamt of programming interfaces implemented via the Leap Motion controller taking the form of origami or sculpting.

Now I'm really intrigued to hear this analogy from someone else and might actually pick up some paper and start folding :)

I mean, dude, when you really think about it, all programming really is is changing data from one shape to another, man..

Largely I agree with this article, except the point that most developers think there is "a constant feeling that things that other people make are better than" their own. One of the most common traps is Not-Invented-Here-Syndrome, and it is one that many a programmer falls into, whether it be through arrogance or ignorance (both of which I have been guilty of). I don't know how prevalent it is in the industry, but for amateurs and hobbyists, it can be a real issue.

Well it's a good point about the other angle of not using anyone else's code at all. I think there should be a good balance between using others' and writing your own code. It requires good judgement. In origami, however, you almost solely use other people's designs, but I think we should encourage putting in your own interpretation.

I find the comparison puzzling and inspiring. Reminds me of Bohm's "Wholeness and the implicate order", "Unfolding meaning" etc. Or even of Chomsky's deep structure. I also can't help but feeling a sort of odd familarity with the idea of decoherence.

What book would you recommend to learn Origami?

Oh there are so many good ones. Robert Lang's "Origami Design Secrets" is sort of a bible. Also, there are 2 publishers worth checking out: Origami house and Origami Shop (http://www.origami-shop.com/m_index.php)

In terms of publishers, Dover Press springs to mind? http://search.doverpublications.com/search?keywords=origami

admittedly I haven't looked at them for years, but they still seem to have quite a range of Robert J Lang, John Montroll, etc.

An aside - there are other connections between computing and origami; 20 years ago Bern & Hayes showed that assigning mountain or valley folds to a crease pattern in order to make it fold flat was NP-complete http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.28.1... (and is also in the "I wish I'd thought of that" category. It was a question from me on Usenet that piqued their interest in origami, so I got an acknowledgement in the paper - but I wouldn't have come up with that idea in a million years)

Erik Demaine has online courses about Origamis in a mathematical setting : http://erikdemaine.org/folding/

It seems no article can be written today without the author establishing himself as a 'cool kid' by taking a random stab at Java.

I didn't mention Java in my article

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