Open source building blocks for computational design. Est.2006

thing

noun

Anything that is or may become an object of thought.
An approximate way to refer to an idea, subject, event, action, etc.
An object or entity that is not or cannot be named specifically.

Blog seriesOf umbrellas, transducers, reactive streams & mushrooms

Part 1 - Venturing into the land of thi.ng/umbrella...
Part 2 - Functions, Transducers, Reducers, Iterables
Part 3 - Convolutions, Cellular Automata
Part 4 - Disjoint Sets, Graphs, Distance Fields

What?

thi.ng is a truly manifold long-term project devoted to Computational Design. Not a framework, nor bound to any specific use case, environment or even language, it's a vast and mature set of complementing code libraries, which has organically grown to approx. 320 sub-projects, with at least half still being actively maintained. This site is a work in progress and so far merely a portal to these projects, though will ultimately serve as a comprehensive hub and archive of all related outputs. Only open source projects & educational resources are presented here.

Who?

Created and maintained by Karsten Schmidt since 2006, the project has been supported by a small group of wonderful contributors. Over the past 23 years, Karsten has produced and contributed to hundreds of open source projects, including Processing and Clojure. He has written about, lectured and taught computational design and is listed in the top 1% on Codersrank. His work has been exhibited internationally, incl. Barbican, Victoria & Albert Museum London, MoMA New York, Garage Moscow, Design Museum Holon, CAFA Arts Museum Beijing.

Why?

Originally, thi.ng was created to help realise Karsten's diverse work projects/commissions and experimental design research, forming an open toolkit we can grow and control as much as possible. Over the years, the conceptual scope has expanded dramatically. Early thi.ng projects began when Computational Design was still in its infancy. With only limited open source tooling in that domain available at the time, some of our projects were pioneering and helping to fill that niche and using these tools for teaching/evangelizing became other primary project goals. Altogether, an additional 200+ examples are bundled with the largest projects in the collection, with more being added regularly.

How?

thi.ng is based on a bottom-up growth & design philosophy: small pieces with narrow scope and utility recombine to fulfil demands of ever changing use cases in similarly varied fields. Because of the wide scope, we're usually working on projects in a round-robin manner, based on feedback and loosely defined long-term goals, which may (and are encouraged to) shift over time. This has included large rounds of refactoring, adopting new languages, platforms or techniques and occasionally leaving others behind, once a project is in a stable condition. Some of the oldest projects here are still enjoying an active following, even after almost 10 years since their last official release...

Full spectrum of topics

One endeavor, hundreds of facets… This current site is a precursor of an ongoing effort to create a semantic graph of all projects, assets and relationships - a massive undertaking, which already spawned several new projects in the collection. Until ready, the following interactive tag cloud is an attempt to give a birdseye view of the subjects covered by various parts of the collection.

Show all 318 projects, use the fuzzy search box or click on a tag to explore and only show relevant projects. Multiple tags can be entered to further narrow the search results…

The current primary development focus is on data-driven, functional tooling for TypeScript and browser-based technologies. However, thi.ng overall aims at different programming approaches and languages, incl. Clojure, ClojureScript, C11, Houdini VEX. All projects share a common philosophy with an emphasis on composition, interop, simplicity, data transformation, introspection & visualization and use of powerful data structures. Most projects favor a mixture of functional and declarative designs over classic object-oriented approaches, though we fully embrace the target languages, strive to be undogmatic and embrace hybrid solutions where they make sense. Parts of the collection also focus on domain-specific languages and offer core infrastructure to help with their implementation.

typescript 2d datastructure clojure 3d workshop array animation browser geometry binary codegen clojurescript generative graph webgl c canvas conversion ui fileformat visualization functional processing.org export math svg toxiclibs graphics hiccup tree async literate-programming simulation acceleration bezier color dsl image interval typedarray audio cli uk clipping generator iterator parser particles circle hardware java nd networked physics pixel random component design interpolation polygon transducer vector bbox fabrication html mesh rstream stream wasm baremetal glsl logger query reactive sort architecture art ast database dsp line polyline sample shader shape stm32 time ziglang agent align analysis arc composition distance event gui points channel declarative format gpgpu matrix nft voxel webassembly adjacency aos bigint css dataflow dom encode gradient json memory memory-mapped pattern pipeline string subdivision template text typography 1d alpha area benchmark cellular-automata chart compiler cubic diff filter interop no-browser object rect render rgb topology 16bit 8bit ansi bitmap blend curve data-oriented decode fuzzy grid hash hdom immutable intersection markdown nodejs noise opencl opengl oscillator path semweb serbia server transformation triples zig 24bit 4d allocator ascii bitwise blur cache cartesian circumcenter concatenative dag fft file float forth germany glitch graphviz grayscale hex language logic macro node paper polymorphic quadratic quaternion recursive scenegraph sculpture sensor simd soa spatial spline state texture theme union voronoi wrapper xml 32bit algebra api assembly blit branding cloth convex csp datalog dependency drawing dual ellipse equality evolutionary floodfill grammar javascript layout livecoding lut map multitasking nested partition pointfree prng proximity raymarch rdf rdom rgb565 scaffold scatter sdf set sparse subscription sutherland-hodgeman synthesis table tessellation utf8 validate waveform wordwrap (546 more...) 4bit 64bit abgr allpass arduino argb assert axidraw base62 base64 bindings biquad bitfield blocking buffer centroid chaikin communication comparator compression convolution crypto csv cycle datadriven deep delay denmark dmx draw dynamic easing edges elliptic entropy envelope force frequency fsm fxhash gaussian group hermite history houdini imgui installation interaction interface k-means linear list mime modular morton multiplex neighborhood normal number offset org-mode packer painting peg penplotter plot polyglot pool portugal process projection promise pubsub quadedge queue reducer reflect resize rotation router rulebased runtime scheduler scope search self-organization semanticweb shader-ast shared-memory shuffle sparql split stack svf swatches sweden switzerland swizzle syntax t-norm throttle tiff timeline touch transpiler triangle trie trigonometry tutorial tween type typecheck unicode uuid value-semantics variable vdom vm z-curve 1bit angle area plot argument artnet assemblyscript attractor automata avif bars base10 base16 base26 base32 base36 base58 base8 base83 base85 batch behavior belgium bencode bidirectional blue blurhash boids bollinger boolean bot braille braitenberg brown bun bundler calculation cancel capacitance cellular cie1931 clock cluster coerce combinator combinatorial compare complex complexity composite compute configuration console constants constraint contours coo coroutines cosine count counter cpp crop crossover cryptography csc csr current cursor cv d-heap d50 d65 data dataviz date debug decorators degree delaunay delete dem density derivative descend detect deterministic diagonal difference differentiation digital directed discrepancy disjointset distributed distribution dither dominant donchian dotproduct dots download dpi dpr driver dropping dynamodb edit editlog ema emoji emscripten emulator energy engine entity epoch error escape execution exif exponential feature feedback fiber fiducial field fifo flatten flocking fluid fog follow font fork form fractional france freelist frustum game gamma generic genetic geo geometric geotiff gif gis git global go golden-ratio grainer-hormann graycode green group-by hair halton hatching hcy hdpi heading headless heap heuristic hexdump hierarchy higher-order hilbert histogram hollerith homogeneous hrtime hsi hsl hsv hull i18n ibm icc icon id identifier iges impulse incremental inference infinite inheritance injection inline inspect instrument instrumentation int integer interleave interpreter invert io ioc isoline israel iterative join jpeg k-means++ k-medians k-nearest kd-tree keyframe kids korea kronecker l-system lab laplacian lazy lch length levenshtein lfo liang-barsky lifo light lighting linkedlist lisp lookat lpg lru macd manhattan marbling marchingsquares mask mass measure mediarecorder memoization mep merge metric millisecond mimedb mixin mono monte-carlo mouse mousewheel moving-average mru msdf msgpack multi-expression multiformat multilevel multiple-dispatch multitouch multivariate mutation name namespace navigation neighbors npm npr nurbs octtree oklab optimize origami ortho osc output padding pairing-heap palette parametric patch percent perimeter permutation perspective phenotype php plastic-number png pointcloud poisson polar porter-duff power precision predicate prefix premultiply presets prime priority-queue probabilistic property pyramid quadtree radix ramp range ray reaction-diffusion red redo refract regexp region relative repl resistance retina rfid ring rle roc rpn rule s-expression schema separation sequence serialport shadertoy sharpen shear shift shortcode si side-effect signal skew skiplist sliding sliding-window slovakia slugify sma smooth smoothstep smpte solver span spectrum speed sphere spiral splat srgb standard-deviation statistics steering step stereo stochastic stratified struct style swap symbolic tab tags tangent tangle task temperature threshold timeout timestamp tlru tokenizer trace transaction triangulation trim trix ttl tuple turkey turtle ulid undirected undo uniform unionfind units uri utc valence varint velocity version versioning vertex vex video vocabulary voip voltage volume wav waveshaper webp websocket weighted white wiki wildcard wildcards windowing wma wordsize worker writing xslt xyy xyz ycbcr ycc zigzag zipper

thi.ng/umbrella

Catalyzing learnings from earlier projects and languages used, and the primary focus for the past 5+ years, at least half of all thi.ng projects have been developed in TypeScript as part of the thi.ng/umbrella monorepo. With several of these projects in development since 2015, in early 2018 a decision was made to merge efforts & develop them further under a common umbrella. Although most of these packages are largely independent, they address a vastly wider set of topics with a more cohesive philosophy, shared infrastructure, types, interfaces, release cycles, examples, interlinked documentation etc.

Counting in at ~185,000 lines of code, documentation & diagrams and another ~33k SLOC of commented examples, most of the 500+ topics forming the above tag cloud are addressed by packages in this monorepo. With very few exceptions, no third party dependencies are used and all umbrella internal relationships are explicitly stated in each package's readme. All umbrella packages are released under the Apache Software License 2.0.

The heatmap timeline below gives an overview of the various packages and when they were added/included in the umbrella monorepo. The start dates shown here do not necessarily indicate project beginnings, only when packages were added & refactored in their current form.

Award-winning work & workshops, powered by open source

"A rising tide lifts all boats."

Since early on, starting with toxiclibs in 2006, projects in this collection have been used across many fields & industries (and helped kicking off several startups), incl. architecture, product & interaction design, data visualization, digital fabrication, interior design, print-on-demand, medicine, branding, motion graphics/VFX, game development, audio production, art installations, etc.

Several projects in which thi.ng projects played a key role were nominated for & won international design prizes, incl. Cannes Lions, D&AD, Red Dot Design Award, British Designs of the Year, Lighting Design Awards, Type Directors Club Award, Media Guardian Innovation Award.

Education and usage as teaching tool have been equally important and long-running project goals. Over the years, many of our projects have been used in this capacity in various schools, universities, workshops and festivals worldwide. Karsten himself has been teaching dozens of workshops since 2008.

For project news, stream notifications & future workshops, please follow us on Mastodon or subscribe to our low frequency newsletter!

Contributors & sponsors

Eternal gratitude to the following humans and organizations for supporting the ongoing development of these projects.

If you'd like to become a supporter yourself, please visit our GitHub sponsors or Patreon profile. Thank you very much!

Thanks to the following organizations for funding earlier development through commissions, collaborations, client work, lectures, workshops & consulting in the past:

ACT Center Gwangju
Architecture Association (DRL) London
Barbican Centre London
The Bartlett (UCL) London
Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Bezalel Academy of Art Jerusalem
CADA Lisboa
CIID Copenhagen
Digital Domain
ETH Zürich
Google
Graphic Design Festival Breda
HEAD Geneva
Hirsch & Mann
Institute of Contemporary Arts London
Jason Bruges Studio
Kingston University London
Kunstuniversität Linz
Kurye Video Festival, Istanbul
Leeds College of Music
Lexus
London College of Fashion
Metropolitan University London
Moving Brands
Münster School of Architecture
Nike
Nokia
OFFF Lisboa
onedotzero
Open Data Institute
Resonate Festival Belgrade
SAC Städelschule Frankfurt
Science Museum London
Sensorium Festival Bratislava
Semipermanent Auckland
Sheffield Hallam University
Sint-Lukas University Brussels
Squint Opera
Technology Will Save Us
Tellart
Todays Art Festival, Den Haag
Troika UK
Universal Everything
Universidade Católica Portuguesa Porto
Umeå Institute of Design
University for the Creative Arts Epsom
University of Applied Sciences Augsburg
University of Lincoln
Watershed Bristol
Westminster University London
Wieden + Kennedy
Winchester School of Art
Wolff Olins
Victoria & Albert Museum London