Other people worth checking out:
- Bret Victor (worrydream.com)
- Kevin Simler (https://meltingasphalt.com/)
- the "explorables" subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/explorables/)
If anyone else can recommend other writers or makers in this area, I'd love to hear about them! It's an area that I really enjoy and I hope to contribute to when I have a bit more free time.
[edit] also I'm happy about the fact that Nicky's work often has to do with systems theory, which is one of the biggest remaining frontiers of human understanding in the universe.
Interactive linear algebra book https://textbooks.math.gatech.edu/ila/
Visualizing quaternions https://eater.net/quaternions
Another quaternions visualization tool that reminded me that a few years ago many sites were full of java applets that were the first "explorables". Sometimes I still stumble upon old university websites that leave some space for the applet but it never loads. Sad stuff
Some tools to make them:
Nature of Code was the book that made coding click for me.
It was a website you could make "games" on. The only tools available were 16 screens you could paint, with 16 colors. Each can be configured to jump to a different screen when clicked.
There was a gallery, with one of the more memorable games being a member from the band Kiss performing a card trick for you.
I've appreciated Nikky's work for years, but didn't know they created something like this. A "Logo" for the modern web is something that I've felt has been missing for a while.
Not nearly as pretty and cool, but here's another https://theintelligentbook.com/thinkingaboutprogramming/#/ch...
See some progress videos here: https://twitter.com/seflless/status/1460788493500796935?s=21