A collaborative canvas where participants program "bots" that move on the canvas and color in cells. The server contains a web UI to watch the canvas in (near) realtime to see how the art is being generated.
The server will also periodically save a PNG of the canvas that can be turned into a video at the end of a session.
Start by running clojure -m paintbots.main. Then open browser at http://localhost:31173
See bots folder for sample bots using simple bash scripts.
Alternatively, you can run local server using Docker without needing to install Clojure:
docker run -p 31173:31173 antitadex/paintbots:latest
Each bot must be registered to use. All bot commands are POSTed using simple form encoding to
the server. See bots folder _utils.sh on how it uses curl to post commands.
| Command | Parameters | Description |
|---|---|---|
| register | register=name | register a bot with the given name (if not already registered), returns id |
| info | id=ID&info | no-op command that just returns bots current |
| move | id=ID&move=DIR | move from current to position to direction DIR, which is one of LEFT, RIGHT, UP or DOWN |
| paint | id=ID&paint | paint the current position with the current color |
| color | id=ID&color=COL | set the current color to COL, which is one of 0-f (16 color palette) |
| msg | id=ID&msg=MSG | say MSG, displays the message along with your name in the UI |
| clear | id=ID&clear | clear the pixel at current position |
| look | id=ID&look | look around, returns ascii containing the current image (with colors as above) |
| bye | id=ID&bye | deregister this bot (id no longer is usable and name can be reused) |
| bots | id=ID&bots | return (JSON) information about all registered bots |
Register command returns just the ID (as plain text) for future use. All other commands return your bot's current position and color.
If you prefer, you can also connect via WebSocket. The API is the same, but instead of sending each command as a separate HTTP request, you connect with the canvas URL. The server expects a text message with the same form encoded format and sends the response back as a text message.
The commands are the same, but register only returns "OK" instead of an id. Id parameter is not required as the id is implicit in the WebSocket connection. The bot is automatically deregistered when the connection is closed.
See azure/README.md for instructions on how to deploy to Azure cloud. You can also easily deploy to any cloud provider that supports hosting Docker images.
The default parameters in config.edn file are enough for most cases, but it is highly recommended
to change at least the admin password.
Notable configuration options:
:widthand:heightaffect the canvas size (320x200 or 160x100 are good to have something visible, bigger canvas will use more memory also):command-duration-msaffects how long the processing of a single command will take at minimum (to prevent flooding with commands):passwordadmin UI password
See config.edn for full configuration with suitable sample values.
HTTP endpoints in the running software:
GET /adminthe admin UI that lets you create/clear canvases and kick players (see above for configuring password)GET /<canvas>view a canvas with given namePOST /<canvas>post a bot command to the given canvas
The canvas name in URL can only contain letters and the root path is a canvas named "scratch". A canvas cannot be named "admin".
The UI includes a Logo-like language interpreter that can be used through the browser (tested with Chrome).
The evaluation uses the same API as all other bots, via the browser's fetch.
To start the interpreted, view the canvas page and add URL parameter ?client=1.
For examples on programs see logo.md file in this repository.