[mortenjorck]

The moment I saw papercraft, computer vision, and a projector, I thought this had to have some relation.

I’ve never been able to resolve a clear position for myself on Dynamicland. I’ve long admired Brett Victor’s work, and I have only the fondest appreciation for the project's philosophy and the enthusiasm with which Victor writes about it.

The only problem is that I’ve never been able to figure out even the first thing about how it works. It’s completely incomprehensible to me, and I just don’t know how to square the project's ideals of human-centered, community-based computing with its seemingly-impenetrable alternate universe of dot stickers and projected images.

[infinite8s]

It's a bit unfortunate that people can't look past the projections and the dot frames/QR codes. Those are just a means to an end, which is trying to simulate a world where all objects have the ability to compute and can be easily reprogrammed on the fly.

Imagine a future 20 years from now where color e-ink is as cheap and ubiquitous as wood pulp paper, and microchips are so small and cheap the can be embedded in everything. DynamicLand seems to be a peek into what living in that that world could be like.

[Towaway69]

Came here to say the same - Bret Victor is doing similar things[1].

I think the point of these projects is to find an alternative approach to interfacing with technology. Why not combine paper and computers?

We make the assumption that interfacing to technology is limited to keyboards, mice and fingers but there is no reason for us to limit ourselves to these approaches.

Anyone using punchcards would be amazed by keyboards and so we will be amazed by interfaces that are beyond our imagination.

[1] https://dynamicland.org/

[anonymouskimmer]

> Anyone using punchcards would be amazed by keyboards and so we will be amazed by interfaces that are beyond our imagination.

Typewriters, proper, pre-existed alongside punchcards for many decades before being incorporated into computer interfaces as keyboards. The fact that they did pre-exist computer keyboards may have led to them becoming the default so fast. While keyboards are amazing, they certainly weren't beyond imagination.

I guess you can say that QR codes, projectors, and cameras predate this Folk computer idea as well. But they are also far less intuitive. Using a typewriter well requires knowing basic literacy and a few new functions (carriage return, line feed, shift, etcetera). Graduating from a typewriter to a keyboard requires learning some additional functionality.

What current devices are teaching the basic functionality needed to jumpstart adaptation to this Folk computer interface?

[kens]

> Anyone using punchcards would be amazed by keyboards

As someone who uses punchcards regularly, I don't understand what you mean. People used a keyboard to punch cards since the 1930s or earlier. You type on a keyboard and the keypunch puts the holes in the card.

[jdougan]

Which make and model of keypunch do people use these days? I thought that IBM had discontinued the Model 029 ages ago (along with all the other unit record equipment).

[kens]

I use the IBM 026 keypunch at the Computer History Museum. This is for historical things, not production use :-)

[Towaway69]

OK, is it then safe to say no one uses punch cards in production ;)

I just assumed that punch cards have gone the way of dinosaurs but always pleased to change my assumptions.