this is a work in progress

woving

woving is a domain specific pattern language, or notation system, for writing concise loom draft instructions. It implements features commonly found in weaving, like repetition and symmetry, into the language itself.

syntax and example

instructions for a loom draft, whether those for the threading or for the treadling sequence, can be thought of as an array of numbers. seen in this image, the striped cells at the top and right-hand side represent the instructions graphically.

this screenshot is from another digital weaving project of mine woven images

as just numbers though the threading and treadling would be:

1. 234122233344411112341143211114443332221432
2. 12341212323434141234143214143432321214321

in woving, those lengthy sequences collapse down into a conciser and clearer form, denoting repetition, symmetry, and where values move incrementally up or down:

1. [2341 2:3 3:3 4:3 1:4 2341]|
2. [/14/12/1324/3414/14/1]!

some transformations happening here are:

• 1:4 would become 1111 (repetition)
• /141/ would become 1234321 (a 'step array')
• 123| would become 123321 (symmetry)
• 123! would become 12321 (odd symmetry, or 'point symmetry')

getting set up locally

1. install nearley.js with npm install -g nearley
2. Compile the woving.ne file (which contains the grammar for the language) with nearleyc woving.ne -o woving.js
3. install node packages npm install
4. run the test suite with npm test