Table of Contents

  1. The Packets project
    1. Packet Forth
    2. CATkit
  1. Installation PF
      1. Ubuntu and other Debian based
      2. Gentoo
      3. Hints for other flavours
  1. User Documentation PF
    1. General Introduction to Forth
    2. Working with Packet Forth
    3. Drawing mode
    4. Animation mode
    5. Packet Forth and the rest of the world
  1. CATkit
    1. First prototypes
    2. The board
    3. Workshops
    4. Documentation
  1. CATkit board assembly
  1. CATkit how-to
    1. Step 1: initialisation
    2. Step 2: ping
  1. Getting started with purrr
  1. CATkit Software
    1. Applications for synth.f
  1. Packets Gallery
  1. Contact
    1. PF list
    2. Packets is
    3. Support

The Packets project

The aim of this project is to provide tools, guidelines and food for thought in the fields of real-time media processing. To this end we are creating open and integrated software, hardware and documentation.

These evolving tools are tuned for audiovisual work. I.e. performances, installations, data visualisation, and general prototyping. Packets attempts to provide an artistic approach to software development and possibly a new way of defining your own creative tools and eventually your own language. The main idea behind packets is in the name: digital art = throwing around data packets.

Our approach is extreme modularity: combining small, simple pieces of hardware and software to create more complex, emerging objects.

Packet Forth

The core software system of Packets is Packet Forth (PF), a scripting language for real-time media object manipulation. It provides an intuitive programming environment which interfaces to the GNU/Linux operating system and real-time systems such as Pd. It is an interactive system: your art is the result of a conversation with the machine. The language itself is very simple. It takes about a day to understand its basic features: how the syntax works, how new functionality can be created, etc.

Because nothing is static in PF, you can (re)define and (re)combine every element to fit your purpose. Right now PF contains enough modules to get you started on creating your own rules.

CATkit

CATkit is an open hardware project designed for the Purrr language. The kit consists of a printed circuit board plus components, to be used as a standalone interactive Forth computer. This board serves as a teaching platform for physical computing workshops, and as a tool for artists looking for a simple system to create stand alone objects with a couple of knobs and switches or other sensors.