Richard Jones' Log: Patterns in Python
Mon, 19 Jun 2006
Melbournians will recognise the pattern (I hope ;) For non-locals, the pattern adorns the external walls of Federation Square here in Melbourne. I think it's pretty cool :)
Code to generate it (requires pygame).
The pattern is called "Pinwheel Aperiodic Tiling" and is named for the pinwheel shape I've highlighted. Click the thumb for a full-size (well, 640x480 anyway) pattern.
I am a Mac user, but I prefer to stick to cross-platform APIs as I'm predominantly a Linux user.
Don't know if you're a Mac user or not, but there's a brilliant program called NodeBox that you might find interesting. It gives you a programmatic interface to Quartz graphics, and allows all sorts of amazing graphics and animations, scripted in none other than Python. It is being used for all sorts of interesting projects, from boids simulations to graphic art. It's worth having a look at the Gallery for a taste of what it can produce.