Yes & No
I just stumbled onto something really exciting. In my newest (not the latest, see Study Materials) AD there is an article about John Maeda’s project over at PROCESSING.ORG. Processing is not software tools that you use in a package like Illustrator (although I do love Illustrator). This is totally cook your own tools using a Java based framework (ok it is really just Java with some extra functions, maybe not exactly a framework). And the galleries are phenomenal. WOW. Amazing interactive stuff. Everyone should download this one, the built-in editor is as easy as programming gets, although Java (what a relief from the classicism of VBscript for Rhino) being a “pure” Object Oriented language might be a little confusing at the start (with all the “new” this, “new” that), my personal feeling is that this will lead to cleaner, more organized code if learned correctly, and therefore to better programmers. I know people would say that to be a real programmer, one must first learn C and study machine language, but what designer has time/use for C (*ahem Formz)? Programmers in general are always trying to convince non-programmers that what they do is magical (kind of like architects) and therefore requires years of practice to even get started. This is simply not true. If you can add numbers and follow directions, you can program. (Here scripting/programming are synonymous)
Which reminds me…
<TANGENT> While I love Rhino, its interface, its accessibility, etc….I hate VBscript. Unless I am missing something, true recursion is practically impossible with it - you have to wait until the end of the function to return instead of breaking off after a conditional like any normal programming language. Frankly that sucks for complex problem solving. Furthermore, who thought it was a good idea to have the same syntax for variable assignments (x = 5) and for conditional tests (If x = 5 Then)? Absurd. If I want to check to see if x is = to y plus 5 then I have to create a whole other variable and test x = z (where z is actually y+5) instead of doing it in one step. Props to Maya for getting this at least somewhat correct by using Perl which is practically the opposite in terms of both syntax legibility and efficiency. Not to mention that VBscript only runs on Windows. Perl however is its own animal. Take for example the infamous Perl competition JAPH (just another Perl Hacker) where the object is to use Perl’s syntax and REGEX power to create the most obfuscated code that produces the phrase “Just another Perl hacker,” Take for example the entry:
$_="krJhruaesrltre c a cnP,ohet";$_.=$1,print$2while s/(..)(.)//;
Fantastic. There was definitely a reason that the dot.com boom was built using Perl (text processing). But while Perl is one of the most flexible, it is surely not always the most readable. VBscript should take some lessons, and Perl…it doesn’t seem that anyone can change the mind of a Perl programmer….Oh, and yes I am aware that Rhino allows me to use any of the .NET platform languages…and I probably should learn C# since it is essentially a ripoff of Java…however there are far fewer resources for C# scripting…plus why learn another language that won’t port to Rhino OSX? (more on that later)</TANGENT>
Anyhow, regardless of your programming preference/experience, check out processing.org, the work is incredible (I promise it won’t make you angry about VBscript).