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Surely I can't be the only one who saw the title "Show HN: What would mechanical programming look like?" and thought ... sure mate, just go back to the 70's and you've got mechanical programming galore in the form of punch cards. ;-)



I went a bit further back when I saw "mechanical programming" and thought of this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwf5mAlI7Ug

Mechanical analog computing FTW!


My thoughts too, amazing machines! To start one in MockMachines, we would need an integrator...


Haha... I remember talking to a teacher in college that used punch cards when he was young and I thought it was awesome, people were closer to the hardware you know? Hopefully my version of mechanical programming is a little more convenient :)


You know, punched cards and/or pianola rolls was the first thing I thought of watching you piano video when you mentioned wanting to record it. (my second thought was one of those cylindrical hand wound chimey music box things - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_box#/media/File:Music_bo... )


That's a good idea. When I recorded the piano I hadn't built the tetris machine yet so I didn't have the proximity-test library part. Now it would be so easy to test if there is a hole or not (or a bump) in a block working as a sheet as it moves down. And now that scripts have editing powers, I can see how I could add a block to where the "cursor" is when I'm recording the song.




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