Chinese Character Hex Bitmapper For Sino:bit

In an effort to help realize the goal of making the Sino:bit accessible to novice coders in non-Latin based languages here is an app that allows you to paste a Chinese character and get a char array representing a bitmap version of the character. The array can be uploaded and displayed on the Sino:bit with the Arduino IDE.

Can Processing's Turtle Library Do Beetle Blocks?

The answer is...sort of! Beetle Blocks is a fascinating blocks based programming environment that allows you to program in three dimensions using a variation of Turtle Geometry.

Image Integration With the Turtle Library for Processing

In this post I'm going to explore using Leah Beuchley's Turtle library for Processing to "stamp" images in a sort of port of Scratch's ability to stamp a sprite's costume. The turtle's self knowledge of its heading and position will come in handy here, though the way Processing's rotation method works make it a little tricky at points, but certainly worth while.
Something to try is creating a graphic that models an animal's movement, such as a butterfly, like I did here with Scratch.

Write an Arc Function With Processing Turtle Library

Blocks based Logo environments that have an arc block, such as TurtleArt, allow you to input the angle of the arc you want to draw, as well as the radius of the circle it is on.

There isn't an arc function in Leah Beuchley's Processing Turtle library. A great challenge is to write your own arc function, and I think high school students would have a great time with this, too. I'm going to break down this problem step by step.

Processing's Turtle Library to Cricut Vinyl

Here's a workflow I'm trying out for Leah Beuchley's Turtle library for Processing, making vinyl cutouts with a Cricut Maker machine. These steps will produces shapes that will allow the cricut to follow the outline to retain the full design in one piece. Also uses Processing's pdf library. This example is a very simple shape but it will be interesting to push the Cricut and see how detailed it can get.

Distributing Processing Apps for MacOS

Processing's ability to export a sketch to executable for Mac, Windows, and Linux is an amazing feature. But the MacOS Gatekeeper after Yosemite kneecapped this method of distribution for Mac users in Sierra and and later as the codesigning certificate implemented in Processing fails to extend to the developer's sketch, or something like that. So if you develop something in Processing and you want to distribute it without people having to open your sketch in Processing you must codesign your own app.
After some searching, I finally found out how. You have to have the paid $99/year Apple developer license, I don't think it works with the unpaid developer subscription. You get a cert in your dev account and download it to your computer, then find the exact name for the dev ID in your Keychain Access. There was something else you have to include, I believe the hash format of the ID, but I've forgotten and will update when I try this again.

Make a Video from a Processing Sketch

I needed to do this and found the steps challenging enough I wanted to keep them here, and maybe they will be helpful to others. I needed to take the words in a static wordle-type presentation and animate them, so they move around a bit. Then I needed to add that animation to a video of a dance.