Dynamic Media Software

About This Project

ZATURN™: Visual, Interactive, Intuitive, Immersive User Experience with Mac OS X and Object Orientated Programming -- Think Tank and Sandbox

Zaturn is a planet in a parallel universe, whose existence cannot be registered, but its influence is felt, thus its discovery and exploration is an exciting challenge.

Project Goals

Objective-C components and utilities
development with a purpose to emphasize connection with the roots of pure object-oriented concepts of Smalltalk. Cocoa API, Model-View-Controller design pattern, extensible object model, component and pluggable application development. Communication between Cocoa-based application or components and scripting environment or declarative UI. Another special interest is distributed applications with remote objects invocation and inter-process, inter-machine communication. Exploiting possibilities of late binding feature of Objective-C within these goals, as well as Key-Value Coding and Observing. Exposing the Cocoa runtime environment to external bindings with scripting and other languages, such as PyObjC, RubyCocoa, CamelBones, Cocoa#.
AppleScript
picking up the original fascination of HyperCard, which was manifested in Toolbook for Windows. Explore the natural language metaphor, a unique ability extend syntax with the use of library components. Overcome the notion that AppleScript is a more read than write friendly, that is find ways to increase intuitive use of language constructs. Use of AppleScript in a dynamic, interactive environment with visual cues and other means to boost intuitive use of the objects and their constructs.
Core Graphics and Quartz, OpenGL and GLUT
using the immense hardware and OS capabilities with the purpose of scientific modeling, immersive game development. Expose the 3D API to high-level scripting and declarative, as well as mathematical and functional languages [olegykj]. Special interest is games with highly visual experience and characters, whose behavior is programmed by the user and in game-time they play independently.
Plugins for Digital Media Applications
iMovie, iPhoto, Final Cut, etc, which provide a platform for visual experimentation and creative design of media directly as well as other areas, such as science modeling, game development, etc. Explore possibilities of elevating the API to high-level languages, such as scripting, declarative as POV-Ray or interactive, such as Quartz Modeler.
Web Development
WebKit API, Safari Plug-ins, Canvas object. Web-enabled desktop applications. HTML editing capability with/without WISIWIG. Components, scriptable with JavaScript and extensible API with macros in JavaScript. JavaScript components exposed to other applications of API implementation.
Dashboard Widgets
highly-interactive and original widgets, such as Circular Slide rule [olegyk:SlideRule], [nsg:SlideRule]. Use of geometrical 2D API provided by the Canvas component. JavaScript based isolation layer allowing an output independent API for (1) constructing vector based graphics and (2) providing interactivity for dynamic manipulation. Alternative outputs would be SVG, Flash, VML as dynamic environments and PDF and PostScript as static.
C++ UI Libraries
Carbon-based Library for GUI applications [Wiki:Carbon]. In the spirit of MacApp and HiView, a high-level productive framework for RAD GUI development. Use of a C++ library provides potential for abstraction and cross-platform portability. Choice of C++ gives object orientation and performance benefits. Use of such framework, besides concrete applications, is a basis for implementing a declarative UI engine, such as for scripting or declarative languages.
Web-based CMS for the project
some of Blog, Wiki, Forum, RSS, Portlets/Portal, Annotated bookmark repository. Web portal to reflect the developments in current project as well as by others in similar areas of interest. More mature continuation of [olegyk:MacDevPlus].

References

[olegyk:MacDevPlus]
http://macdevplus.blogspot.com/
[Wiki:Carbon]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_(computing)
[Wiki:MacApp]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacApp
[Apple:MacApp]
http://developer.apple.com/tools/macapp/
[olegykj]
http://olegykj.sourceforge.net
[olegyk:SlideRule]
http://olegykj.sourceforge.net/sliderule/sliderule_canvas.html
[nsg:SlideRule]
http://nsg.upor.net/slide/crkl1.htm

Categories