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Comment by jlgreco | Hacker News Reader

So are programs compiled into that rendered tile format? Is this using some existing standard for transcribing algorithms into this calligraphy?

This looks very neat but I'm afraid I don't entirely understand it.

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No, I write the code normally, then I manually lay out the tile calligraphy and build the mosaics by hand. There's no way to automate the process that I know of. It's tricky to get everything to fit together and look right. I am a novice at this stuff, and master calligrapher Mamoun Sakkal's website has been a great help http://www.sakkal.com/instrctn/sq_kufi_alphabet.html.

The writeup could be more clear about how the mosaics are made, though. I'll update it.

The "Rendered Tile Format" you refer to as is the Arabic Kufi script.

Since this script has existed since a long while, nearly a millennia, there should be existing algorithms in place used by artists and calligraphists.

There are rules to follow to make sure the letters remain readable, but its mostly a lot of staring at a grid and trying to make it all look right.

Just realized the title was misleading so I removed the word "render."

I don't think the calligraphy is rendered automatically at the moment. Looks like the author is doing it manually. I'm guessing automatic rendering is planned, but not sure of that.

Hmm, I see. Do you know if the calligraphy itself could be executed/interpreted? The idea of a visual representation of a program being art but also executable appeals to me.

Ever heard of Piet?

http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_%28programming_language%29

Oh man, that is fantastic. Some of those example programs are really reminiscent of Wireworld.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireworld

A friend of the author of QLB here, and I brought up the idea of a visual interpreter to parse the square kufic calligraphy. My understanding (limited as it is by my almost complete ignorance of Arabic) is that certain stackings of adjacent words would be ambiguous to the parser.

I'm not so interested in automatic generation of calligraphy for this project, to be honest. I find something meditative about spending a lot of time sweating over laying out these algorithms. It mirrors the struggle I had (we all had, I imagine) while trying to understand them in the first place.

Now I regret wording the title this way. Hope it doesn't confuse too many people.

It's my bad. I'll update the write up soon to be more clear.

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