Test project 12 May 2021
naos - an interactive Langton's Ant explorer
- Node.js
- Express
- Vanilla JS
- HTML5 Canvas
- Accessible
A 2021 school canvas toy rebuilt into an interactive turmite explorer: play, pause and step the ant, change the turn rule, and watch order emerge as it builds a highway near step ten thousand. Node, Express and a vanilla canvas, no framework.
The challenge
Take a 2021 school canvas toy - one bare grid that lagged, hid its own ant and crashed the moment the ant walked off the edge - and turn it into a correct, fast, accessible turmite explorer without leaving a vanilla canvas and Express.
Approach
Rewrite the engine first: a typed-array grid, an integer ant, dirty-cell rendering and an explicit boundary, then generalise the rule to L/R/U turmites with presets and honest highway detection. Wrap it in a bespoke field-notebook design - specimen plate, compass and ledger in OKLCH - with full controls, real copy and accessibility from the ground up.
Result
An interactive turmite explorer that runs millions of steps without crashing, flags the highway at step 9,977, and reads like a scientific specimen plate. A vanilla canvas and Express, responsive from 390px and accessible, deployed behind Caddy.