Pretty Flower

https://editor.p5js.org/ToniJ/sketches/BbCmvbk4T

When I was coding this flower with Toni for two weeks I couldn't help but imagine a scenario where an advanced coder would look at our work and clown us for spending two weeks to make a dinky little flower and stress the hell out over the rotate( ) function just to find out that we accidentally made it a variable in the global area. This is where ya'll can stop reading and save yourself from my embarrassment (specifically, my embarrassment because Toni was a trooper and I don't know how she actually felt about the entire process).

But to focus on the pros. We demonstrated a couple of skills in this piece. We made a slider, used the map function, and used loops for the petals. Also, I think the colors on the flower are pretty. That's all.

Now for the laundry list of cons, which in theme are more about my process while coding.

Firstly it's my lack of organization or a labeling system. I've had days where I walk into the ITP building, sit down, and look at my code and thought I was on a different project. You may wonder why it gets this bad. Well, it's because when I'm trying to troubleshoot my project, I'm not thinking about how do I make all these lines of code neat and tidy. I'm thinking "what the hell (try something) dammit (try something else) bah humbug!!" and so the time where my hands are spent are split evenly between trying to fill out arguments, aggressively searching reference page as if I'm studying SAT vocabulary, and pulling out my hair. So, by the time I figure out what is wrong with my code, tidy code cannot repair the hurricane of lines that I've commented out, and the lack of labels that I was too impatient to fill in.

Secondly it's my brain. I'm not trying to make each of my creative projects a magnum opus, but I want to understand the underlying principles and logic behind all of this madness. So far, it just feels like I've memorized a couple of different functions, and order of syntax. Most of my troubleshooting process has been trial and error, so when I do solve the problem and don't really understand how I arrived at my solution.

Thirdly, I'm also finding hard to know how to organize separate sections of code in a wholistic way. This project felt like I was trying to stack the parts of the flower from front to back. I also don't know whether its bad that I still fiddle with the numbers and the canvas size a billion times, and whether I'm building up a bad habit. As a designer who is experienced with creative programs, I'm used to troubleshooting a design by moving shapes with the arrow keys or the drag of my mouse. Since everything on this page moves according to x and y coordinates, there is no way to test whether things look right unless I plug numbers, which by the time I've finished adjusting everything I feel like I've committed a sin, because repetition means bad coding and I just repetitively plugged in random numbers.

With all that said, I am proud of the potted plant I made. Peace