Tag: processing

Automatically create perfect .gitignore file for your project

These days, I am often programming in multiple different languages for my projects. I will do some data generation and machine learning in Python. The data exploration and some quick visualizations I prefer to do in R. And if I’m feeling adventureous, I might add some Processing or JavaScript visualizations.

Obviously, I want to track and store the versions of my programs and the changes between them. I probably don’t have to tell you that git is the tool to do so.

Normally, you’d have a .gitignore file in your project folder, and all files that are not listed (or have patterns listed) in the .gitignore file are backed up online.

However, when you are working in multiple languages simulatenously, it can become a hassle to assure that only the relevant files for each language are committed to Github.

Each language will have their own “by-files”. R projects come with .Rdata, .Rproj, .Rhistory and so on, whereas Python projects generate pycaches and what not. These you don’t want to commit preferably.

Enter the stage, gitignore.io:

Here you simply enter the operating systems, IDEs, or Programming languages you are working with, and it will generate the appropriate .gitignore contents for you.

Let’s try it out

For my current project, I am working with Python and R in Visual Studio Code. So I enter:

And Voila, I get the perfect .gitignore including all specifics for these programs and languages:


# Created by https://www.gitignore.io/api/r,python,visualstudiocode
# Edit at https://www.gitignore.io/?templates=r,python,visualstudiocode

### Python ###
# Byte-compiled / optimized / DLL files
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
*$py.class

# C extensions
*.so

# Distribution / packaging
.Python
build/
develop-eggs/
dist/
downloads/
eggs/
.eggs/
lib/
lib64/
parts/
sdist/
var/
wheels/
pip-wheel-metadata/
share/python-wheels/
*.egg-info/
.installed.cfg
*.egg
MANIFEST

# PyInstaller
#  Usually these files are written by a python script from a template
#  before PyInstaller builds the exe, so as to inject date/other infos into it.
*.manifest
*.spec

# Installer logs
pip-log.txt
pip-delete-this-directory.txt

# Unit test / coverage reports
htmlcov/
.tox/
.nox/
.coverage
.coverage.*
.cache
nosetests.xml
coverage.xml
*.cover
.hypothesis/
.pytest_cache/

# Translations
*.mo
*.pot

# Scrapy stuff:
.scrapy

# Sphinx documentation
docs/_build/

# PyBuilder
target/

# pyenv
.python-version

# pipenv
#   According to pypa/pipenv#598, it is recommended to include Pipfile.lock in version control.
#   However, in case of collaboration, if having platform-specific dependencies or dependencies
#   having no cross-platform support, pipenv may install dependencies that don't work, or not
#   install all needed dependencies.
#Pipfile.lock

# celery beat schedule file
celerybeat-schedule

# SageMath parsed files
*.sage.py

# Spyder project settings
.spyderproject
.spyproject

# Rope project settings
.ropeproject

# Mr Developer
.mr.developer.cfg
.project
.pydevproject

# mkdocs documentation
/site

# mypy
.mypy_cache/
.dmypy.json
dmypy.json

# Pyre type checker
.pyre/

### R ###
# History files
.Rhistory
.Rapp.history

# Session Data files
.RData
.RDataTmp

# User-specific files
.Ruserdata

# Example code in package build process
*-Ex.R

# Output files from R CMD build
/*.tar.gz

# Output files from R CMD check
/*.Rcheck/

# RStudio files
.Rproj.user/

# produced vignettes
vignettes/*.html
vignettes/*.pdf

# OAuth2 token, see https://github.com/hadley/httr/releases/tag/v0.3
.httr-oauth

# knitr and R markdown default cache directories
*_cache/
/cache/

# Temporary files created by R markdown
*.utf8.md
*.knit.md

### R.Bookdown Stack ###
# R package: bookdown caching files
/*_files/

### VisualStudioCode ###
.vscode/*
!.vscode/settings.json
!.vscode/tasks.json
!.vscode/launch.json
!.vscode/extensions.json

### VisualStudioCode Patch ###
# Ignore all local history of files
.history

# End of https://www.gitignore.io/api/r,python,visualstudiocode

Try it out yourself: http://gitignore.io/

Making GIFs with Processing

Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts. It’s open-source, there are many online materials, and the language itself is very accessible.

I recently stumbled upon 17-year-old Joseff Nic from Cardiff who has been making GIFs in Processing only since 2018, but which are turning out fantastic already. You can hire him here, and have a look at his Twitter, Tumbler or Drimble channels for the originals:

#processing pic.twitter.com/ENcGeUihHx
— Jo (@jn3008) September 15, 2019

Here are some more of Joseff’s creations:

Wave Swirl loop design processing gif animation

Some of Joseff’s work seems inspired by David Whyte, a graphic designer from Ireland. His portfolio is quite impressive as well, very visually pleasing, and you can hire him here.

Bees & Bombs Roulette gif processing web web design

StudioPhi spiral gif processing geometry motion

Knot geometry motion design processing gif

If you’re interesting in learning Processing, Daniel Shiffman demonstrates how to create the most amazing things in Processing via his Youtube channel the Coding Train, which I’ve covered before.

Daily Art by Saskia Freeke

Saskia Freeke (twitter) is a Dutch artist, creative coder, interaction designer, visual designer, and educator working from Amsterdam. She has been creating an awesome digital art piece for every day since January 1st 2015. Her ever-growing collection includes some animated, visual masterpieces.

Year 4 of making daily art!
Wouldnât ever thought that this would go on so long!
Thank you all for your support, kind messages and likes!
Letâs see what 2019 will bring! — Via http://sasj.tumblr.com/post/181589324890/year-4-of-making-daily-art-wouldnt-ever-thought

My personal favorites are Saskia’s moving works, her GIFs:

Geometric Animations / 190209 — Via http://sasj.tumblr.com/

Geometric Animations / 180626 — Via http://sasj.tumblr.com/

Geometric Animations / 180115 — Via http://sasj.tumblr.com/

Saskia uses Processing to create her art. Processing is a Java-based language, also used often by Daniel Shiffmann whom we know from the Coding Train.

Sorting Algorithms 101: Visualized

Sorting is one of the central topic in most Computer Science degrees. In general, sorting refers to the process of rearranging data according to a defined pattern with the end goal of transforming the original unsorted sequence into a sorted sequence. It lies at the heart of successful businesses ventures — such as Google and Amazon — but is also present in many applications we use daily — such as Excel or Facebook.

Many different algorithms have been developed to sort data. Wikipedia lists as many as 45 and there are probably many more. Some work by exchanging data points in a sequence, others insert and/or merge parts of the sequence. More importantly, some algorithms are quite effective in terms of the time they take to sort data — taking only $n$ time to sort $n$ datapoints — whereas others are very slow — taking as much as $n^2$ . Moreover, some algorithms are stable — in the sense that they always take the same amount of time to process $n$ datapoints — whereas others may fluctuate in terms of processing time based on the original order of the data.

I really enjoyed this video by TED-Ed on how to best sort your book collection. It provides a very intuitive introduction into sorting strategies (i.e., algorithms). Moreover, Algorithms to Live By (Christian & Griffiths, 2016) provided the amazing suggestion to get friends and pizza in whenever you need to sort something, next to the great explanation of various algorithms and their computational demand.

The main reason for this blog is that I stumbled across some nice video’s and GIFs of sorting algorithms in action. These visualizations are not only wonderfully intriguing to look at, but also help so much in understanding how the sorting algorithms process the data under the hood. You might want to start with the 4-minute YouTube video below, demonstrating how nine different sorting algorithms (Selection Sort, Shell Sort, Insertion Sort, Merge Sort, Quick Sort, Heap Sort, Bubble Sort, Comb Sort, & Cocktail Sort) process a variety of datasets.

This interactive website toptal.com allows you to play around with the most well-known sorting algorithms, putting them to work on different datasets. For the grande finale, I found these GIFs and short video’s of several sorting algorithms on imgur. In the visualizations below, each row of the image represents an independent list being sorted. You can see that Bubble Sort is quite slow:

Cocktail Shaker Sort already seems somewhat faster, but still takes quite a while.

For some algorithms, the visualization clearly shows that the settings you pick matter. For instance, Heap Sort is much quicker if you choose to shift down instead of up.

In contrast, for Merge Sort it doesn’t matter whether you sort by breadth first or depth first.

The imgur overview includes many more visualized sorting algorithms but I don’t want to overload WordPress or your computer, so I’ll leave you with two types of Radix Sort, the rest you can look up yourself!

Visualizing Neural Networks in Processing

Coding Train is a Youtube channel by Daniel Shiffman that covers anything from the basics of programming languages like JavaScript (with p5.js) and Java (with Processing) to generative algorithms like physics simulation, computer vision, and data visualization. In particular, these latter topics, which Shiffman bundles under the label “the Nature of Code”, draw me to the channel.

In a recent series, Daniel draws from his free e-book to create his seven-video playlist where he elaborates on the inner workings of neural networks, visualizing the entire process as he programs the algorithm from scratch in Processing (Java). I recommend the two videos below consisting of the actual programming, especially for beginners who want to get an intuitive sense of how a neural network works.

PS. I tend to watch them on double speed.

Part 1: