What is Algorithm Ink?

Algorithm Ink is a port and extension of Context Free by Aza Raskin. The original grammar was originally conceived of by Chris Coyne. Algorithm Ink uses open-web, standards-based tools: no plugins required. You can even right-click to save the drawings. The caveat is that Firefox 3, and Opera 9.5 are the only browsers to fully support Canvas, so it may run slower on Safari, and not at all in Internet Explorer.

How to use?

Read the Context Free documentation, or just browse some of the other pieces of art and look at their source code. Not everything from Context Free is supported—like comments, z-depth, and *—but some new things are available, like MOUSECLICK, and MOUSEMOVE.

Here's an example to get you started:

startshape twoshapes
rule twoshapes{
  CIRCLE{s .5}
  SQUARE{x 1}
  twoshapes{y .2 s .5 b .1}
}

This draws a circle of scale 1/2 at the origin and square one space to the right. It then draws that whole shape scaled down by half and moved slightly up in a lighter gray (higher brightness). This repeats until it gets too small to see—we've just made a fractal!

Get The Source & Help Out

You can download contextfree.js and go wild. If you get inspired, it's open source, so jump in! Email me (aza [at] mozilla [dot] com) to get involved.