Automat
176 points by surprisetalk 7 days ago | 66 comments
  • surprisetalk 11 hours ago |
    Marek gave some helpful background for this project during a recent Future of Coding meetup (first demo in the stream).

    [0] https://mrogalski.eu

    [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7z77QGARLE

    [2] https://futureofcoding.org

  • chirau 9 hours ago |
    I don't get it, what is this supposed to be? Another drag and drop? I am failing to understand the uniqueness of this.

    Also, if you put the cup on the tape and try to move the tape, the cup removes itself.

    • nusl 9 hours ago |
      Drag the floppy to the console and you'll get a download link for the tool.
      • Mashimo 6 hours ago |
        Got so far, but what does the tool do?
        • stavros 5 hours ago |
          It looks like it's some sort of game-playing AI?:

          > Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers.

          That's not what I got from the notebook, though. From the notebook, I thought it was some sort of new programming paradigm, so I'm confused.

    • nuxi 9 hours ago |
      Open the notebook and flip through it. Drink the coffee (drag the mug downwards). Put the floppy in the device. Put the VHS tape in the device.
      • nmstoker 8 hours ago |
        That's an illustration of the difficulties. I got the disk, video dvd and even drank the coffee but I initially thought the notebook was some sort of box for the video so didn't realise you could open it to read!
        • nuxi 4 hours ago |
          I think that's on purpose/by design, so that users are nudged into exploring. Things like these were pretty common in adventure games back in the days, which I probably spent too much time on playing...
      • elric 8 hours ago |
        I first tried to shake the coffee to see if I could make a mess, didn't work. When the mug is empty, the github logo becomes visible and you can click through to the github repo.
      • huhtenberg 6 hours ago |
        How do you open the notebook?

        I can drag it around, no problem. The cursor also changes to a pointy hand when over notebook's right side, but clicking doesn't do anything. Nor does click-and-hold-then-dragging.

        • nuxi 4 hours ago |
          Clicking on the right side (pointy hand) worked for me.
    • SirFatty 6 hours ago |
      "Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers."
    • tsunamifury 4 hours ago |
      It’s like a mini myst puzzle as an way of consuming content
  • nusl 9 hours ago |
    I like the easter egg where you can drink the coffee if you drag it to the bottom of the screen.
    • the_third_wave 7 hours ago |
      You just came up with a good name for this type of interface: the Easter Egg Interface in which everything need to be discovered, a bit like walking through a forest with paths to the South, South-East and North and there is an old house there with a mailbox, the flag on the mailbox is raised.
      • throwanem 7 hours ago |
        The name in vogue a few decades back was "mystery meat navigation."
      • ileonichwiesz 6 hours ago |
        That just sounds like an interface without enough affordances to be understandable to the user. Reminds me of Snapchat (at least when I used it a couple years back) - to block a user just tap and hold their name, then swipe right twice, then turn your phone upside down.
      • owlninja 5 hours ago |
        A point and click adventure :)
  • can16358p 9 hours ago |
    It was lovely until I double tapped and accidentally zoomed in with no apparent way to zoom back out again.

    Otherwise, lovely.

  • throwanem 9 hours ago |
    An interesting experiment, very reminiscent of the early 90s' Magic Cap, Microsoft Bob, et al. But objects in physical space afford a discoverability that can't be replicated here, and the metaphor thus quickly and inevitably becomes a burden.
    • ActionHank 4 hours ago |
      Also, in the Flash days, everyone and their dog had this sort of thing as their personal \ portfolio site.
  • RedNifre 8 hours ago |
    You can't put the diskette into the device by pushing it in. Instead, you have to hold it at a position that makes an arrow appear and when you release it, it will push itself magically.
  • sunbum 8 hours ago |
    What even is it? I read the github repo but that explains nothing about what it actually is.
    • harel 7 hours ago |
      Yes
    • AnyTimeTraveler 5 hours ago |
      From the Github Readme[1]:

      Automat's objective is to be able to semi-autonomously play a variety of games. It's the first step towards a more general environment for interacting with computers.

      Currently Automat's functionality is limited to keyboard macro recording & playback. It's fairly unstable but if you're lucky and it runs on your machine, it can be useful for automating some basic actions.

      [1] https://github.com/mafik/automat

      • marcellus23 2 hours ago |
        That's not really helpful. It's software that plays games on its own? But also it's some sort of new GUI environment? But also, all it can do is record and playback keyboard macros? What actually _is_ it?

        edit: I haven't downloaded it because I don't have access to a Windows PC. But I guess, based on that description, it's basically AutoHotkey with a snazzy UI?

      • tantalor 2 hours ago |
        Finally, I can automate Factorio.
    • philote 3 hours ago |
      Yeah I had no clue what this site was until reading the comments. I saw you could move things on the page around, then gave up because I had no idea what the point was. I didn't even find the github link until I saw your comment and decided to play around more.
  • gtsnexp 8 hours ago |
    Is this something like LabView for hippies?
  • itronitron 7 hours ago |
    Interesting, there is a short description of the project in the Moleskine book that you can click through after dragging it into view.
    • andai 6 hours ago |
      Man, I thought that was a dead tablet!

      The notes within are interesting, though it's not clear to me if Automat itself meets those ideals? (Or even tries to? From what I understood, the notebook seems to first praise tech that is ubiquitous and enduring, but then rejects web apps due to bloat?)

  • donalhunt 7 hours ago |
    What is this wonderful device that takes VHS tapes and floppies? :)
    • sevensor 6 hours ago |
      The old skeuomorphism used analog analogies. I like that this demo uses older computing technology.

      Generally I think the time is right for a reversion to richer textured interfaces. GUIs are pretty pointless for 90% of the desktop software I use, but if you’re not going to do the decent thing and give me a good textual interface, at least give me some eye candy instead of these stale, dreary flat interfaces.

  • sourcepluck 6 hours ago |
    Ah, I guess then that this is unrelated to the 1978 Brazilian electronic music LP?

    https://www.discogs.com/release/443321-Automat-Automat

      "in the beginning there was the "MACHINE"
  the survival and the organization of the
  planet depended upon the "MACHINE"
  the future an the past depend upon
  the "MACHINE"... the past?
  but who wanted the "MACHINE"... ?"
  • andai 6 hours ago |
    Delightful! I wish there was more.
  • protocolture 6 hours ago |
    I like how the website is a great visual description of why skeumorphism is terrible. Its also fun to use.
  • creativenolo 5 hours ago |
    This style of website will be rife soon - there’s more and more popping up. Even yesterday, I was looking at https://comancheindians.tilda.ws/en

    These websites would have been super hard to resource the assets, but now with Gen AI it’s simple.

    • Karawebnetwork 3 hours ago |
      When I was at university, Flash was very popular.

      Websites like this were our main projects.

      It was easy to make them team projects, they asked us to split between programmer and designer.

      The designer had to create the assets.

      We had a photo lab and the designer was sent into town to take photos.

      We weren't allowed to use stock images, which would have speeded up the process.

      However, it was still relatively simple for young adults to create the elements.

      AI is cool, and yes, it will make everything faster.

      But I don't think the wall here was feasibility, it's more that the skeuomorphism trends ended and the market was saturated with highly dynamic interactive websites thanks to Flash making them easy to manage.

      So the trends stopped.

      It's nice to see it coming back, it was a lot of fun creating them.

      • falloon 10 minutes ago |
        Why is this formatted like one of those wanky linkedin posts?
    • pixelatedindex 3 hours ago |
      I can’t imagine the way you build this website is the same way you build your static sites or a landing page. Is it WebGL? Looks extremely complex to be honest.
      • Onavo 3 hours ago |
        The trick is to use a game engine or something similar (not vanilla CSS/HTML). Flutter web would work well here, once Safari's WebAssembly GC support gets merged, you will have a lot of options.
      • mafik 3 hours ago |
        Author here :) There is no trick here actually. It's just HTML / JS / CSS. Browsers are pretty good at compositing CSS transforms - and know how to handle DOM updates coming from event handlers & requestAnimationFrame. There is one CSS hint that speeds it up a little "will-change: transform". Another important ingredient is to update the object position in the (pointermove) event handler - so that the responsiveness is low - physics engines also could do this, but it's usually an overkill.

        You can take a look at the script in the website's sources - it's inline.

    • Kye 22 minutes ago |
      It's so weird to talk of them in the past tense like they went away centuries ago when the Nʉmʉnʉʉ are still around. I can think of at least one I used to goof with on Twitter all the time. I see waaaay down at the end of the tiring scroll there's a sliver of mention that they still exist, but...that's it.
  • BJones12 5 hours ago |
    There's a name collision with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
    • timdiggerm 5 hours ago |
      Only if the context in which you're writing/speaking is such that you are likely to be referring to a historical restaurant genre or whatever this thing is
      • alex_young 5 hours ago |
        Automata were super common in popular culture in the 50s and 60s. The way of the future. I think many people would first think of them, especially without context.
    • rdlw 3 hours ago |
      Automat is a common European word for 'machine' or 'vending machine', many languages have it.
  • VyseofArcadia 5 hours ago |
    I tried for a while to spill the coffee on everything, but I was never able to make it happen.
  • kerblang 4 hours ago |
    Aaaand I'm still stuck on the anachronistic idea of hierarchical menus with text that explains what you're about to do, along with keyboard shortcuts and - in the non-mac world - "mnemonics" (sequential keyboard shortcuts).

    High-efficiency symbolic communication, in other words.

  • jszymborski 4 hours ago |
    Kinda wish the coffee mug left a coffee ring when you set it on the napkin.
    • mafik 3 hours ago |
      Yes! I wish CSS had decals support!
  • thih9 4 hours ago |
    Is there a way to play with the app presented in the video?

    Edit: Looks like you have to pick the blue 3.5 floppy, insert it into the video player and then you see the links to download windows / linux binaries[1].

    [1]: https://github.com/mafik/automat/releases

    • DrDeadCrash 3 hours ago |
      After ignoring the download links I ejected the floppy, drank some coffee, and read from the notebook. What did you try?
  • tills13 2 hours ago |
    So let me get this straight, not only does it not explain what it is, it's a bit of a puzzle to even get to the download links, and then it straight up downloads an .exe which you expect me to run on my computer?

    Give me more info without me having to pry it out of you through finding your github which honestly isn't much more descriptive.

    • DrillShopper 2 hours ago |
      I wish web designers would understand they do not have unilateral, unchecked power to make my browser do what they want - if they want that power they're going to have to ship a PDF or a program.

      The accessibility for this site additionally looks like it's a goddamn nightmare.

    • vivzkestrel 2 hours ago |
      if I have to sit and think about what to do on your website without reading a manual, then it has already failed the user experience department
    • aaronharnly an hour ago |
      If you click on the moleskine notebook, you can read seven pages of "handwritten" notes, though they are full of analogies and exhortations that still don't actually explain what it is.
    • soerxpso 14 minutes ago |
      I like the website. The little puzzle holds my attention for enough seconds to make me curious. The issue is just the lack of information after you figure it out. I still can't tell what this software is. It "plays games"? Is it supposed to be a game-playing AI? Is it a game console? A fantasy console? A game engine?
  • outlore 2 hours ago |
    perhaps off topic: for many months i’ve been thinking about creating tactile buttons. are there any APIs to produce vibration in the phone via the browser? i’d like a way to create a vibration response curve when toggling a switch. i’d like to feel the friction and resistance like a real-life switch. is this within the realm of possibility with current browser APIs?
  • tolerance 2 hours ago |
    It's interesting to observe how something so outwardly trivial or whimsical can elicit a visceral agitation borne from ignorance.
  • distalx an hour ago |
    I think it’s got a unique, nerdy charm that stands out in the best way.
  • recursive an hour ago |
    I appreciate the whimsy, but also, I don't have the patience to figure out how to do anything with this.
  • alamortsubite 29 minutes ago |
    I was really hoping for a web ode to Horn & Hardart [1] or at the very least FEBO [2].

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_%26_Hardart

    [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEBO

  • claar 10 minutes ago |
    If you actually want to know what his program does, watch this Youtube video starting at 37:15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7z77QGARLE&t=2234s