Improved interactive development

[Kevinpgalligan]

Things to add:

• (Gleefre's suggestion) Have a slot/option like :restart-on-redefinition nil, so the window doesn't have to restart every time the defsketch is recompiled. If someone is just tweaking the drawing code, for example, or how the state gets updated (as opposed to adding new state), then they may not need to restart the window. Or even if they're adding new state, maybe they don't need to refresh (this might require ensuring that the new draw doesn't get called before any new slots are added).
• May also want another config option to control whether the slots are reinitialised with prepare.
• A hook or hotkey (like close-on) to manually trigger restarts.

Together, these features would enable something closer to "true" interactive development.

[aykaramba]

I would love to see this feature because Sketch is really annoying in my tiling window manager ... on every recompile the window is restarted and my window manager renders the window in a slightly different place (which is correct for my workflow).

Anyone know what it would take to implement this feature?

[Kevinpgalligan]

I've never been sure exactly how the window gets reinitialized. I imagine it's something to do with update-instance-for-redefined-class - maybe sdl2kit provides an implementation of that method that recreates the window? I'll look into it when I get the chance.

[aykaramba]

I am learning Lisp and don't know enough to dig in to that level my self yet. I will try to help if I can.

[Kevinpgalligan]

I've done some experimenting with the current version of Sketch. The window isn't getting recreated for me when I recompile a defsketch, and it stays in the same position. I suspect that this was fixed when we removed kit.sdl2:gl-window as a superclass of the sketch class.

We do, however, reset all the slots to their default values, and we trigger the setup method to be called again.

I'm imagining the user might want to tweak the drawing logic and SOME of the slots, without resetting all of them or invoking setup. E.g. the sketch is a bouncing ball, they want to preserve the current position of the ball when they recompile but update the formula used to compute its new position, some constants (slots) used in the formula, and the appearance of the ball.

Straightforward solution: if restart-on-redefinition is t, then don't call prepare or setup on redefinition. Then all the state is preserved, while the user can tweak the draw logic. But what if they want to tweak some of the slots while preserving others? Either they move such parameters to global variables ( (defparameter *g* 9.81) ), or maybe we allow them to specify slots that should always be redefined.

Maybe....

(defsketch foo
    ((x 0)
     (y 0)
     (g 9.81 :adjustable))
   (do-stuff))

Or...

(defsketch foo
    ((x 0)
     (y 0)
     (g 9.81)
     (pi 3.14)
     (adjustable-slots '(g pi)))
   (do-stuff))

[Kevinpgalligan]

Live coding is now possible in Sketch! These ideas were implemented here, although it's completely undocumented: Kevinpgalligan@4032f57

The final API looks like:

(defsketch moon
    ((x 0)
     (y 0)
     (c +white+ :tweakable t)
     (bg +black+ :tweakable t)
     (restart-on-change nil)
     (restart-on :r)
  (background bg)
  (setf x (mod (+ x (random 10) -5) width)
        y (mod (+ y (random 10) -5) height))
  (with-pen (make-pen :fill c)
    (circle x y 15)))

• In this sketch, you can recompile the defsketch form and it won't restart the window or affect the existing state (x and y) of the Sketch.
• If you add :tweakable t to one of the slots, that means it WILL be updated when you recompile the defsketch, and thus you can tweak the background colour and the colour of the moon while preserving the position of the moon.
• Finally, it adds a keyboard shortcut, "r", to manually reset the state of the sketch (again, without closing the window). The default is F1.

Feel free to check out the dev branch of my fork and experiment, feedback appreciated.

[aykaramba]

Amazing!

[aykaramba]

I tried loading up your dev branch, I am running into a few problems.

0. I am using Debian 12.5.

1. I updated quicklisp repos just in case.

2. I deleted all instances of sketch just in case.

3. I git cloned this branch int my local-projects folder from here: https://github.com/Kevinpgalligan/sketch/tree/dev

4. When I (ql:quickload :sketches) I get an error about floats:

Value of (- 1 -1) in (FLOAT-DIGITS (- 1 -1)) is 2, not a FLOAT.
[Condition of type SIMPLE-TYPE-ERROR]

Restarts:
0: [TRY-RECOMPILING] Recompile noise and try loading it again
1: [RETRY] Retry loading FASL for #<CL-SOURCE-FILE "sketches" "noise">.
2: [ACCEPT] Continue, treating loading FASL for #<CL-SOURCE-FILE "sketches" "noise"> as having been successful.
3: [RETRY] Retry ASDF operation.
4: [CLEAR-CONFIGURATION-AND-RETRY] Retry ASDF operation after resetting the configuration.
5: [ABORT] Give up on "sketches"
6: [REGISTER-LOCAL-PROJECTS] Register local projects and try again.
7: [RETRY] Retry SLY mREPL evaluation request.
8: [*ABORT] Return to SLY's top level.
9: [ABORT] abort thread (#<THREAD "sly-channel-1-mrepl-remote-1" RUNNING {1001398003}>)

Backtrace:
0: (SB-C::%COMPILE-TIME-TYPE-ERROR (2) FLOAT # ((- 1 -1)) "(FLOAT-DIGITS (- 1 -1))" NIL)
Locals:
ATYPE = FLOAT
CAST-CONTEXT = NIL
CODE-CONTEXT = "(FLOAT-DIGITS (- 1 -1))"
DETAIL = ((- 1 -1))
VALUES = (2)
1: ((SB-C::TOP-LEVEL-FORM (FLOAT-DIGITS (- 1 -1)))) [toplevel]
[No Locals]
2: (SB-FASL::LOAD-FASL-GROUP #S(SB-FASL::FASL-INPUT :STREAM #<SB-SYS:FD-STREAM for "file /home/user/.cache/common-lisp/sbcl-2.2.9.debian-linux-x64/home/user/mnt/work/desktop/user/common-lisp/ske..
3: ((LAMBDA NIL :IN SB-FASL::LOAD-AS-FASL))
Locals:
SB-FASL::FASL-INPUT = #S(SB-FASL::FASL-INPUT ..)
4: (SB-IMPL::CALL-WITH-LOADER-PACKAGE-NAMES #<FUNCTION (LAMBDA NIL :IN SB-FASL::LOAD-AS-FASL) {1009F3C67B}>)
Locals:
FUNCTION = #<FUNCTION (LAMBDA () :IN SB-FASL::LOAD-AS-FASL) {1009F3C67B}>
5: (SB-FASL::LOAD-AS-FASL #<SB-SYS:FD-STREAM for "file /home/user/.cache/common-lisp/sbcl-2.2.9.debian-linux-x64/home/user/mnt/work/desktop/user/common-lisp/sketches/src/noise.fasl" {1009F38CB3}..
6: ((LABELS SB-FASL::LOAD-STREAM-1 :IN LOAD) #<SB-SYS:FD-STREAM for "file /home/user/.cache/common-lisp/sbcl-2.2.9.debian-linux-x64/home/user/mnt/work/desktop/user/common-lisp/sketches/src/noise..
7: (SB-FASL::CALL-WITH-LOAD-BINDINGS #<FUNCTION (LABELS SB-FASL::LOAD-STREAM-1 :IN LOAD) {7F5ED2374C7B}> #<SB-SYS:FD-STREAM for "file /home/user/.cache/common-lisp/sbcl-2.2.9.debian-linux-x64/home/rta..
8: (LOAD #P"/home/user/.cache/common-lisp/sbcl-2.2.9.debian-linux-x64/home/user/mnt/work/desktop/user/common-lisp/sketches/src/noise.fasl" :VERBOSE NIL :PRINT NIL :IF-DOES-NOT-EXIST :ERROR :EXTE..
9: (UIOP/UTILITY:CALL-WITH-MUFFLED-CONDITIONS #<FUNCTION (LAMBDA NIL :IN UIOP/LISP-BUILD:LOAD*) {1009F3869B}> ("Overwriting already existing readtable ~S." #(#:FINALIZERS-OFF-WARNING :ASDF-FINALIZERS)))
10: (ASDF/LISP-ACTION:PERFORM-LISP-LOAD-FASL #<ASDF/LISP-ACTION:LOAD-OP > #<ASDF/LISP-ACTION:CL-SOURCE-FILE "sketches" "noise">)
11: ((SB-PCL::EMF ASDF/ACTION:PERFORM) # # #<ASDF/LISP-ACTION:LOAD-OP > #<ASDF/LISP-ACTION:CL-SOURCE-FILE "sketches" "noise">)
12: ((LAMBDA NIL :IN ASDF/ACTION:CALL-WHILE-VISITING-ACTION))
13: ((:METHOD ASDF/ACTION:PERFORM-WITH-RESTARTS (ASDF/LISP-ACTION:LOAD-OP ASDF/LISP-ACTION:CL-SOURCE-FILE)) #<ASDF/LISP-ACTION:LOAD-OP > #<ASDF/LISP-ACTION:CL-SOURCE-FILE "sketches" "noise">) [fast-method..
14: ((:METHOD ASDF/ACTION:PERFORM-WITH-RESTARTS :AROUND (T T)) #<ASDF/LISP-ACTION:LOAD-OP > #<ASDF/LISP-ACTION:CL-SOURCE-FILE "sketches" "noise">) [fast-method]
15: ((:METHOD ASDF/PLAN:PERFORM-PLAN (T)) #<ASDF/PLAN:SEQUENTIAL-PLAN {1001C4D483}>) [fast-method]
16: ((FLET SB-C::WITH-IT :IN SB-C::%WITH-COMPILATION-UNIT))
17: ((:METHOD ASDF/PLAN:PERFORM-PLAN :AROUND (T)) #<ASDF/PLAN:SEQUENTIAL-PLAN {1001C4D483}>) [fast-method]
18: ((:METHOD ASDF/OPERATE:OPERATE (ASDF/OPERATION:OPERATION ASDF/COMPONENT:COMPONENT)) #<ASDF/LISP-ACTION:LOAD-OP > #<ASDF/SYSTEM:SYSTEM "sketches"> :PLAN-CLASS NIL :PLAN-OPTIONS NIL) [fast-method]
19: ((SB-PCL::EMF ASDF/OPERATE:OPERATE) # # #<ASDF/LISP-ACTION:LOAD-OP > #<ASDF/SYSTEM:SYSTEM "sketches"> :VERBOSE NIL)
--more--

5. If I accept the error I get other errors around not finding various things in /src ... I guess this issue is first.

Thoughts? I'm pretty sure I am doing something wrong.

[Kevinpgalligan]

You should try loading sketch instead, my sketches project only seems to work with my version of SBCL 😄 Or, if you really want to use it, open noise.lisp in the sketches repo and change all the parts saying (random-state:generate-float -1 1) to (random-state:generate-float -1.0 1.0). Or, just wait for me to fix it!

[Kevinpgalligan]

Pushed a fix to sketches, feel free to try it out. (Haven't actually tested that it still works).

[aykaramba]

Just dropping in to let you know that it does error out with missing things like rain.fasl (and a few others) but I can just accept, get it running and play around! None of the errors are an issue, don't spend any time on that, just have fun.

Hey thanks, that looks great, appreciate it. I wasn't expecting a quick response, awesome!

[Kevinpgalligan]

Hm, weird, I don't think I've gotten an error like that before. Happy to help debug if anything's not working, just create an issue over in the sketches repo. Thanks for checking it out!

[aykaramba]

Just dropping in to say thank you for the updates and the samples! I played with all of them, really great work! I will use them to do a whole bunch of learning.

Thanks again.