The Nature of Code (2012)

by pelasaco • 3 years ago

210 23 3 years ago

tromp2• 3 years ago

Given the contents:

    1. VECTORS
    2. FORCES
    3. OSCILLATION
    4. PARTICLE SYSTEMS
    5. PHYSICS LIBRARIES
    6. AUTONOMOUS AGENTS
    7. CELLULAR AUTOMATA
    8. FRACTALS
    9. THE EVOLUTION OF CODE
    10. NEURAL NETWORKS

a title "The Code of Nature" would also seem appropriate...

beepbooptheory• 3 years ago

Yes that is the play on words here! They are all aiming to simulate physical processes and such.

tromp2• 3 years ago

Yep; they also could have gone with "Natural code", or "Code natural" ...

chaosprint• 3 years ago

Great book. I got inspired by this book and the other one (https://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~clark/nordmodularbook/nm_algorith...) last year and made an logistic map function random notes example for the music programming language I created:

https://glicol.org/demo#chaos

thetrustworthy• 3 years ago

The author said a 2nd edition will be out later this year: https://twitter.com/shiffman/status/1646961509833011201?s=20

newswasboring• 3 years ago

The homepage puts "Receive lifetime book updates for free", I guess that would mean second editions?

shiffman2• 3 years ago

My intention is to send free digital updates to those who purchased the original 2012 PDF via the website, I have a list via fetchapp.com. I will probably remove this message for the new version. Print editions or other proprietary ebook formats (like kindle, etc) will be for purchase only for the new version. More: https://github.com/nature-of-code/natureofcode.com/pull/42

archerx• 3 years ago

Check out “coding train” on YouTube if you haven’t already. Love how he teaches coding, mistakes and all.

afry1• 3 years ago

One of my absolute favorite YT coding channels, I will second that recommendation!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvjgXvBlbQiydffZU7m1_aw

autopilot23• 3 years ago

This is one of the first books I read when learning how to code :)

phonescreen_man• 3 years ago

Great author and one of the best teachers! This book is being rewritten to use JavaScripts p5js- original version is written for Java processing.

macintux• 3 years ago

Submitted every few months for years now, not a lot of conversation.

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=natureofcode.com

Discussions with more than one comment:

- Release announcement: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4709551

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6300510

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8060179

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14410201

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19632361

dang2• 3 years ago

Thanks! Macroexpanded:

The Nature of Code - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23157721 - May 2020 (1 comment)

The Nature of Code – evolutionary and emergent properties of nature in code - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19632361 - April 2019 (8 comments)

Generative Coding – “The Nature of Code” Ported to Three.js - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18122940 - Oct 2018 (12 comments)

The Nature of Code (2012) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14410201 - May 2017 (16 comments)

The Nature of Code: Simulating Natural Systems with Processing [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13295139 - Jan 2017 (1 comment)

The Nature of Code - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8060179 - July 2014 (15 comments)

Basics of Neural Networks with example codes and illustrations - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6300510 - Aug 2013 (29 comments)

* The Nature of Code free online book with live examples* - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5153895 - Feb 2013 (2 comments)

Daniel Shiffman launches "The Nature of Code" online for free - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4709551 - Oct 2012 (11 comments)

pgayed2• 3 years ago

  (map link-expander list-of-links)

I wonder what it looks like in Arc. Does HN keep any of its codebase public?

iknownothow• 3 years ago

If you're a beginner absolutely give it a try!

I implemented all of the book almost 10 years ago in Python and pygame. I was starting to code professionally back then and it is responsible for much of the confidence I needed. It definitely is more about nature and math than code. If you're the kind of hands on learner like I am, then I'd recommend using this as a resource to learn to code first before learning about theorectical data structures. Thanks to the author, I am now in a position to buy it :)

grungegun• 3 years ago

Loved this book.

When I first started programing, I was convinced that text applications weren't real programs, and the visual aspect of the book pulled me in to be a life-time programmer :)

who-shot-jr• 3 years ago

Daniel Shiffman is amazing! An excellent teacher.

sumanmichael• 3 years ago

Such a lovely book. Try it, go fall in love with nature -o-f- and code.

rramadass• 3 years ago

I think this book should be used to teach "Programming" (in any language) in School because it shows how to use Computers as an aid to actually learning/simulating Science which dovetails nicely with the Maths/Physics/Chemistry/Biology classes.

Teaching this way will actually motivate students to understand Science since they can program the evidence and convince themselves of the "Scientific Truth" of what they have studied.

bj-rn• 3 years ago

If you like this book you might also like Generative Gestaltung / Generative Design:

http://www.generative-gestaltung.de

shiffman2• 3 years ago

Hi! I'm the author, excited to find this post here. I am working furiously on a new version of the book, if you want to see it in progress there is a preview site here: https://nature-of-code-2nd-edition.netlify.app/

More: https://github.com/nature-of-code/noc-book-2023

The Nature of Code (2012)

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