A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages
posted by Artw on May 8, 2009 - 47 comments

Sodaconstructor. "Looking at the fluid, lifelike way these creatures walk and roll and slink across the screen you might think that there must be some very complicated stuff going on behind the scenes. well fear not, it's actually very simple. it only looks complicated because lots of simple bits are working together." Be sure to stop at the sodazoo to see others' creations.
posted by AstroGuy on Jan 9, 2006 - 27 comments

this childs game (java applet) is so complex you could use it to construct a computer. the original paper (postscript), is heavy going - if you're not a compter science student but would like to understand more try this wonderful book by one of the authors (example pictures).
posted by andrew cooke on Oct 7, 2002 - 7 comments

Java is alive and kicking, and this guy knows what to do with it. Check out his sexy alife experiments (art? science?) and this goofy game. (Warning: his stuff crashed my browser a couple of times, but was worth it. Most applets are available for download.)
posted by grumblebee on Nov 5, 2001 - 14 comments

Dave Winer offers us 2 views of the scripting world in 2005. He says that 'in one view, we are all inside Microsoft's box, sharing a common set of libraries and object hierarchies. In the other, we use our favourite tools and runtimes, our communities stay independent.' Frighteningly, he may well be absolutely right. What a great diagram; it reminds me of drawing when I was a kid.
posted by Atom Heart Mother on Aug 31, 2001 - 17 comments

I'm sorry, but using Java to play back streaming media does not make for a 'playerless' environment. Java is the player, and it needs to be active in order for this product to work. The only true 'playerless' browser environment uses server-push and html meta-refresh.
posted by grant on Nov 20, 1999 - 0 comments