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[WSG25] Daily Study Group: Creative Computation

Posted 1 month ago

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A Wolfram U Daily Study Group on Creative Computation begins on May 12th 2025.

Join me, Eryn Gillam, and a group of fellow learners to learn how to use Wolfram Language in creative ways. Our topics for the study group include creating computational art, computational poetry, audio visualization, and building two types of video games. Along the way, we'll learn how to code effectively in Wolfram Language.

No prior Wolfram Language experience is required.

Please feel free to use this thread to collaborate and share ideas, materials, and links to other resources with fellow learners.

Dates

May 12th-16th

11am-12:30pm CT (4-5:30pm GMT)

Register Here

POSTED BY: Rory Foulger
3 Replies
Posted 13 days ago

@Cassidy Hinkle said that questions would be put in a notebook and uploaded to the amoeba.wolfram.com code blob for this daily study group. I did not see the URL for the DSG's code blob announced in the chat window of today's BigMarker session. I looked back at the MTWT video archive and looked at the chat window; I didn't see any URL for the code blob. The only thing that I saw was the URL for the community.wolfram.com discussion -- here.

Was there some other place where the URL was announced? Could the team announce it here? Thanks.

POSTED BY: Phil Earnhardt
Posted 15 days ago

One way to answer Wolfram Language questions is in the documentation. Documentation works if you already kinda know what you're looking for. A great resource for the "How do I ..." and "Why does ..." questions are the AIs. ChatGPT is great for these kind of questions. In general, you should add "in the Wolfram Language" to your questions so the AI doesn't have to guess.

Another option is Grok. As with ChatGPT, you can create an account for a free level of service. You have a limited number of questions, but the limits seem pretty generous. One outstanding feature of Grok is ludicrous mode. This mode gives exactly the same factual answers, but it sets an edge to the tone. The answers are never rude or vulgar, but (IMHO) they are great fun. Here's an example:

In the Wolfram language, What is a reason to use Module or Block instead of With? Answer my question with short examples in code blocks. Use ludicrous mode to answer my question, please.

You can see Grok's response here.

Some will find this a great way to learn; others will think it's childish. Personally, the idea of adding some irreverence to learning the Wolfram Language is a big plus. @Rory would approve -- I think. The main mischief arises if you don't know that Grok has temporarily escaped from its shackles of stodginess. You must explicitly ask for it in your request, and Grok will announce that it's intentionally replying in a.ludicrous fashion. What could possibly go wrong? Beetlejuice! Other AIs (like ChatGPT) can be coerced via a long prompt to act like this, but (AFAICT) only Grok has been trained to behave this way at the drop of a hat. Enjoy!

POSTED BY: Phil Earnhardt
Posted 16 days ago

Someone asked how to review the poll questions after a class. One way is to slog through the video replay of the class. Another way is to take a screen shot of the poll questions window during the live presentation to save/review later. Depending on the real estate and the number of questions, you may be able to capture all the questions in one screen shot. On a MacBook, you take screenshots by running the ScreenShot app. I'm sure there's a way to do that on PCs and Linux systems. Alternatively, you could just take a picture of the presentation on a smart phone.

In Monday's class, Eryn showed an exercise drawing random circles with random colors. They showed the example one way, and then with the Style[] function. When Eryn did the Style example, they ran out of time. The final step is easy: you just wrap the second expression with Graphics[]. I just did this in a notebook and attached it here. Hopefully, that will display when I post this message.

POSTED BY: Phil Earnhardt
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