Guest: John Henry Thompson

TL;DR

John Henry Thompson, inventor of the Lingo programming language, discusses the history of Lingo and the challenge of preserving digital content.

Transcript

hello welcome to an incredibly special episode of the coding train I have a guest here for you today this is incredibly exciting for me have I said incredible too many times it is incredible John Henry Thompson if you're not familiar with John Henry Thompson please check out this video's description his website the links there but better yet just k... Read More

Key Insights

• 💦 John Henry Thompson's work on the Lingo programming language had a significant impact on the field of creative coding.
• ♻️ Lingo and MacroMedia Director were important predecessors to many popular programming languages and environments used today, such as Processing and p5.js.
• 🛟 The retirement of Director and Flash poses challenges for preserving digital content created with these technologies.
• 🖐️ Efforts are being made to recreate or reimplement the software necessary to access and play Director and Flash content.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did John Henry Thompson's work on Lingo impact the field of creative coding?

Thompson's work on Lingo and MacroMedia Director provided an accessible way for non-programmers to create interactive content, influencing the development of languages like Processing and p5.js.

Q: What were the main features of Lingo programming language?

Lingo was a dynamic and object-oriented language, allowing users to easily manipulate variables without worrying about memory management. It was also cross-platform, allowing for content creation on both Mac and Windows systems.

Q: How does the retirement of Director and Flash impact the preservation of digital content?

The retirement of Director and Flash creates the risk of losing valuable digital content, as proprietary software like Director and Flash cannot easily be preserved or accessed without official support. Digital archivists are concerned about the loss of this content.

Q: Is there anything the creative coding community can do to preserve digital content created with Director and Flash?

An online petition has been created to advocate for the preservation of Flash content. Additionally, efforts can be made to recreate or reimplement the software needed to play and access this content. Collaboration with digital archivists and open-source initiatives may be beneficial.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• John Henry Thompson is a guest on The Coding Train and discusses the influence of Lingo programming language on creative coding.

• Lingo and MacroMedia Director were predecessors to languages like Processing and p5.js that are taught today.

• Thompson discusses the history of Lingo, its features, and the challenges of preserving digital content.