[Arm-netbook] revision control in the arts?

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 2:47 PM, Hendrik Boom <hendrik at topoi.pooq.com> wrote:

> For word processing, I think the only good solution is a document
> compiler, with the writer editing the source code.
>
> I know of nothing comparable for visual arts.

 there are two separate concepts here: revision control of
non-text-based documents, and the relevance of "art" to science.

 the first is a well-known problem, for which things like "yodl",
"tex" and other
complex-document-formats-from-easy-text-based-generators already
exist.

 another example: i wrote pyopenscadobj and am the de-facto maintainer
of pyopenscad, because you can write python programs which generate
SCAD files which in turn generates 3D models.... and the python
programs can be checked into git revision control.  can you check in
.blend or .iges or .step files into git revision control?  no you
can't because they're a dog's dinner.

 for file formats which do *not* lend themselves to this technique,
all i really have to say on the subject is: tough titty.  find an
alternative program and file-format... or just put up with the fact
that your git repository becomes nothing more than a file store with
zero ability to store or track "differences".


 the second, hendrik, you may have misunderstood why "art" was
mentioned in the context of science and engineering.  we are *not*
discussing "traditional artistic subjects" such as painting, sculpting
and so on.

 we are referring to (as does the hippocratic oath) the application of
artistic *principles* to scientific endeavour, which is something that
is, admittedly, quite hard to understand let alone actually do.

 some examples include: taking "intuitive" decisions in solving
engineering problems; applying "creativity"; and other such things.
these are *general principles* which are most commonly used in the
"arts", and hippocrates was pointing out that when science does *not*
apply them then science suffers.

l.