Show HN: Curvy turtle graphics for SVG paths (open-source)
Posted by mmkns 1 day ago
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Comment by mmkns 1 day ago
I was hand-editing SVG path elements (who doesn't?), and I figured a turtle language could calculate coordinates for me, but those only do straight lines. So I made my own, with commands for SVG arcs and bezier curves, and other things like reusable user-defined shapes, and now it's a useful command-line tool (it calculates 'd' attribute path data).
I've called it SvgPathTurtle. It's a programming language, but only for drawing (it's not general purpose like Logo). Emit whole SVG files for experimenting, or merge path data into conventionally-authored SVG, for true web development.
At the link: examples, tutorials, full docs, and quick-start build instructions for Linux & Windows. MIT License. Source-only (for now).
Tech details: it's a simple-to-use, fully declarative domain-specific language, with user-defined functions, closures, anonymous lambdas, modules, transforms, and even user-defined shapes that can be placed, scaled, and rotated.
It seemed neat that the turtle might become useful, so I'm sharing. I'd love your feedback!