PALIMPSEST is a text manipulation toolkit and live editor

basic concepts

any piece of text (referred to as a string) can have a number of methods applied to it.

every change you make to the text and each method applied to it will update on the opposite side of the screen.

you can also execute the code by typing (windows, linux) ctrl-enter or (mac) cmd-enter

"PALIMPSEST is a text manipulation toolkit"
    .scramble(true).out('h1');

"it allows you to send text through a number of processes, which are defined at the bottom of this page".out();

chaining

any command can be chained together and will only be output if ended with out().

these chains can span multiple lines,making the document easier to read and experiment with.

"any method can be chained".out()

"any method can be chained"
    .decimate(0.5)
    .reverse(true)
    .out()

text buffers

this tool can also handle text documents by selecting from numbers 0-9 in the middle toolbar.

each text buffer exists in an array, accessible as txt[index of file]

below, the first text buffer (numbers starting at zero) is reversed. txt[0].reverse()

you can also upload multiple files using the chooser at the top of the page. (note: your existing buffers will be overwritten)

selector

after loading your files you can view them individually by clicking on the numbers that appear in the middle of the page.

the text can be retrieved using this number

"you can upload multiple text files using the button at the top of the page (and shift-click-ing on each)".out()

"then you can view them individually using the selector in the middle".out()

"and use them in your code by accessing the txt array. the first file would be accessed as txt[0], as arrays begin at zero.".out()

METHODS

• text manipulation
  • decimate (amount, substitute = '-')
  • filterRepeat (invert = false)
  • superimpose (txt2, delineate = ' ')
  • weave (txt2, amount = 1.0, words = false)
  • reverse (words = true)
  • scramble (words = true)
  • alphabetize(words = true)
  • sortLength()
  • isolate(match = '', words = true, invert = false)
  • stanza(nlines = 2, split = '.')
  • toAscii(offset = 0)
• other
  • random (arr = txt)
  • out (element = 'p')

decimate

decimate (amount, substitute = '-')

you can decimate a string, replacing a percentage of the text with the substitution.

by default it decimates individual characters, but soon it will allow for decimating words instead.

"let your text decay".decimate(0.2, '-').out()

filterRepeat

filterRepeat (invert = false)

you can filter out all repeat occurrences of words.

this function can also be inverted so that only the repeats will be displayed.

"only the first occurrence of the word will appear".filterRepeat().out()

"when inverted, only the repeated words will appear".filterRepeat(true).out()

superimpose

superimpose (txt2, delineate = ' ')

superimpose will replace all non-whitespace characters of the first document with the second.

"lay two texts on top of each other".superimpose("THE TEXT ON TOP").out()

weave

weave (txt2, amount = 1.0, words = false)

weave will output a string that alternates the characters(or words) between two texts. If a second argument is provided, it will alternate between the texts at the given percentage.

"you can perform text weaving"
    .weave("to get interesting combinations of material", 1.0, true)
    .out()

reverse

reverse (words = true)

reverse will reverse the order of the words in a string.

by passing false as an argument, it will reverse individual characters instead.

"you can read forward or backwards".reverse().out()
"you can read forward or backwards".reverse(true).out()

scramble

scramble (words = true)

scramble will mix up all of the words or individual characters of a string.

"some text is better scrambled".reverse().out()
"some text is better scrambled".reverse(true).out()

alphabetize

alphabetize (words = true)

alphabetize will reorder a string either by word or by character

sortLength

sortLength

sortLength will reorder the words in a string by their length

isolate

isolate(match = '', words = true, invert = false)

isolate will remove all words or characters that fail to match the provided string

stanza

stanza(nlines = 2, split = '.')

stanza will split a string (by each period by default) and insert a number of linebreaks

toAscii

toAscii (offset = 65)

map the current letter to a symbol in unicode, an offset can be provided

random

random (arr = txt)

the random command can be used to select a random element from an array.

this means you can select texts at random random(txt).decimate(0.2)

or use it to generate a random number txt[0].decimate(random([0.0,0.5]))

if no arguments are passed, it will get the txt array by default.

random(
    [
        "anything can be passed as an array",
        "it can work on text and on numbers".decimate(random([0.1,0.8]))
    ]
).out();

/* for example
random(txt)
    .reverse(true)
    .weave(random(txt), , true)
    .out()
*/

out

out(element = 'p')

out will send an html element of the given type to the output window. by default, all elements are paragraphs.

options include 'p', 'h1', 'h2', 'h3', 'h4', and more

palimpsest was made in 2020

by austin słominski @aceslowman (on twitter, ig) [email protected]

the code for this project is located at it's github page https://github.com/aceslowman/palimpsest

this project was inspired by live coding tools like:

hydra (@ojack) https://github.com/ojack/hydra

orca (@hundredrabbits) https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca

TidalCycles (@tidalcycles) https://tidalcycles.org