yesterday and today I began learning from – watching – the YouTube tutorial by ClearCode on pyGame (camel-case mine, they use all lower case). The tutorial is four hours long and so is a commitment.

because I cant do things the straightforward way, I opt to use the Mu python learning environment on my pi-top Raspberry Pi lapttop. Does one capitalize the names of programming languages? Does one italicize them? Mu has a library it calls pygame zero, which alerts me that it might be a subset of the full pygame library.

an hour into the tutorial I am receiving errors that the constructs used by the YouTuber are not necessarily the same ones in pygame zero. Sigh.

I have to track the differences between pygame and pygame-zero.

sidetracked to catch up on morning emails and other comms

Also a distracting thought, search for Electron app on Raspberry Pi devices. Electron is a wrapper that makes stand-alone Javascript applications. Should be cross platform.

Looking at possible new collab with Scott Horowitz who I will shorten to Scott Hz and distinguish from Scott Howard who is Scott H. To further distinguish from Scott Leutenegger who is Scott L.

I’ve set up a meeting with Eric G to talk about Space Invaders / Invasores.

Yesterday I met up with Scott H and promised him a copy of the Elements of Typographic Style. He will get version 3.1 from my collection of copies.

Spoke on Friday with Scott L and Jeff E during our research meeting about Bringhurst’s Elements of Typographic Style in relation to HCI. Jeff asked if I knew about Butterwick’s work. Butterwick adapted Bringhurst first for lawyers, and then for the screen. He also had been building book-building apps in the Racket programming language.

The confluence of typography as part of the considerations for contemporary programming languages and Human-Computer Interfaces (HCI) is interesting. I asserted (without proof) that there haven’t been any papers in the HCI community about documentation and about typography. That assertion may be tested. We’ll see.

The LatinX in Games festival is set for Friday and Saturday online.

I’m meeting up with Kelly P at Maria’s Empanadas on Weds to envision a center for the book at DU.

Yesterday I visited InterOcean Studio for the first time and marveled at Ray Tomasso’s archive. His wife Diane worked as a graphic designer and seems very kind. She is deeply interested in ensuring that the studio and archive remain a self-supporting learning center.

This morning I saw a call by the National Endowment for the Humanities for community archives projects. InterOcean Studio came to mind immediately. So, too, did the People’s Graphic Design Archive. Design Complex may have some purchase here too. I don’t think I can work anything up in time for the first call. There is a second call due in April.

back to python and pygame and pygame-zero.

So, yes, the interplay/ecosystem of Mu, Python3, Pygame, and Pygame Zero each have their ideosyncracies.

Mu is able to present a learner with several modes. Each reduces the complexity of Python3 in some way.

One of the modes available is Pygame Zero, which reduces the complexity of both, and so shares ideosyncratic vocabulary/lexicon and syntax.

Now I need to learn what works. There are pygame zero specific documentation on the web. some in video form, some in words.

okay, using the Pygame Zero specific tutorial is giving me some love on the Raspberry Pi, by which I mean quick enough feedback loops.

lunch time.

dishes washed, recycling brought in, appointment for flu shot made, now back to work

spent the last three hours with a pygamezero tutorial, and with hunting down other resources for both pygame and pygamezero. brain is tired. gonna call it a day.