The TODO List For JONGL

If you like to help with the JONGL project - this is a list of things *you* can do to improve JONGL. It is mainly based on the workshop we held at the European Juggling Convention in Edinburgh 1998. The list is sorted, the easiest tasks coming first.

• Invent patterns and / or objects for JONGL. This is fairly easy. If you miss your favourite juggling pattern or object look at the specification and send the result to us. (No programming.)

• Translations into other languages. Currently there are English, German, French, Spanish and Catalan. Dutch has been discontinued, Italian has been worked on (without much success). Languages in demand are e.g. Portuguese and Italian or any other language you prefer. There is only one file called english you have to translate, about 14K in size. (No programming.)

• Portations to other operating systems. The one needed most of these is Apple's MacOS X which compiles and links already, but then crashes. But any other OS not supported until now is fine, if you want to make a port to it.
  For this to do you should have some knowledge in system dependant programming, e.g. opening a file selector to ask the user what juggling pattern he wants to see. If you are interested, have a look at the JONGL skeleton source code. This should not be very much work, because most of JONGL is written in ANSI-C. The graphic routines use Mesa, which is a freely distributed OpenGL clone which runs on most platforms you can imagine. The pattern selector is made with Tcl/Tk which exists for a bunch of different OSs.

• Coding a pattern database. The file selector lets the user reduce the number of displayed patterns by saying e.g. "I want all passing patterns with 7 or 8 objects". Currently this is worked out using the filenames of the patterns, but that doesn't work without errors. A database could contain data like: no. of objects, no. of jugglers, with multiplex, with bouncing, can I do this, personal best, have I seen this, learning 7, .... (ANSI programming.) Probably it is not necessary to have a full featured database like MySQL. A smaller solution, e.g. with a formatted text file (one line per pattern) may be enough.

• Things we could do with a pattern database:
  • Compute patterns which are similar to the current pattern. Or show patterns which use n+1 or n-1 objects.
  • A routine which computes the throws needed to get from one pattern to another one.
  • Implement a kind of playlist: Select one pattern and the number of repetitions, then a 2nd pattern and the number of repetitions and so on. The throws between the patterns will be generated automatically and thus we can set up a complete juggling performance.

• Doing some add-ons to JONGL.
  I can imagine a causal diagram editor (like the one Charlie Dancey described in his club juggling compendium). (Graphic programming.)

• Additional editors. Having hierarchic objects we can think about a
  • Hand movement editor, which allows us to simulate things like Rubensteins Revenge or a
  • Juggler movement editor, which enables juggling patterns like The Weave, where the jugglers walk around. Pirouettes should be possible, too.
  (Graphic programming.)

Of course you can do something else if you have an idea. No regulations. Feel free to make suggestions.