Implementing electronic circuits and wiring

[codefox]

Edit: forget about this post, this one is the real deal!

Edited March 16, 2015 by codefox

[ColourOfFire]

So what would the function of all this computing be? Why would you want it?

Just adding a bunch of numbers to each other doesn't seem like a huge improvement to me.

[codefox]

So what would the function of all this computing be? Why would you want it?

Just adding a bunch of numbers to each other doesn't seem like a huge improvement to me.

Well.. my idea was about being able to create things which work fully automatically.

I'd like to go with this example:

You have two space stations, one for storage and one another one is habitated. The habitated one has a radio relay which sends a command to the storage space station as soon as the supplies run out. Now, a transport ship will be filled with supplies and sent to the space station, as well as returning back to the storage space station.

It would work like that:

Radio relay on habitated space station (station 1) is connected to a sensor which continuosly checks the supplies. A logic gate would compare the amount of the supplies and as soon as it is lower than it should be, it sends a command to the storage space station (station 2) which tells station 2 to dispatch a transport ship. The transport ship gets filled and travels to station 1, refueling the supplies and then it travels back to station 2.

Of course you could create much more than that. You could create almost everything.

Edited March 16, 2015 by codefox

[Streetwind]

If you can actually create a system that lets the player build hardware out of basic logic gates and then have that hardware execute code as the user watches it happen, with its speed and efficiency being dependant on how exactly the player built it... well, that would probably be not very much in the general theme of KSP...

...but it has the potential to be of exceptional educational value. The thing that immediately comes to mind is "Minecraft redstone CPUs". Building a giant contraption of several hundred square meters out of nothing but NOT gates, wires and support structures, and then watching said contraption read binary numbers from memory, add them and write them back at 2 Hertz clock rate while all over the place lights are switching on and of rhythmically... that gives you a perspective on computer logic that no college level theoretical course can hope to match in sheer intimacy and personal connection. Obviously, giving the player only NOT gates to work with is pretty hardcore - technically everything in computer hardware is an arrangement of NOT gates at its very core, but at the same time, how much effort do you want to ask of the player? Maybe abstracting into higher order gates and pre-made memory modules and such from the get-go could be useful.

Just keep in mind that such a system, as mentioned above, would pull the player completely out of KSP and into something else entirely while interacting with that system. It would almost be a game of its own (and probably could be developed as such). Therefore it feels to me like you're setting yourself up for a massive amount of work with such a project.

[codefox]

If you can actually create a system that lets the player build hardware out of basic logic gates and then have that hardware execute code as the user watches it happen, with its speed and efficiency being dependant on how exactly the player built it... well, that would probably be not very much in the general theme of KSP...

...but it has the potential to be of exceptional educational value. The thing that immediately comes to mind is "Minecraft redstone CPUs". Building a giant contraption of several hundred square meters out of nothing but NOT gates, wires and support structures, and then watching said contraption read binary numbers from memory, add them and write them back at 2 Hertz clock rate while all over the place lights are switching on and of rhythmically... that gives you a perspective on computer logic that no college level theoretical course can hope to match in sheer intimacy and personal connection. Obviously, giving the player only NOT gates to work with is pretty hardcore - technically everything in computer hardware is an arrangement of NOT gates at its very core, but at the same time, how much effort do you want to ask of the player? Maybe abstracting into higher order gates and pre-made memory modules and such from the get-go could be useful.

Just keep in mind that such a system, as mentioned above, would pull the player completely out of KSP and into something else entirely while interacting with that system. It would almost be a game of its own (and probably could be developed as such). Therefore it feels to me like you're setting yourself up for a massive amount of work with such a project.

It would be much more simple than that, if you want to. You could just create your own small applications which execute stuff, much like kOS but with more possibilities.

Of course you can also go the hard way and set up everything with logic gates, although most of the people would probably only use them for basic stuff.

However, I have to agree on the part regarding the amount of work needed to create such a mod. I want to start on my own and as soon as it has reached a somewhat working stage, I'd try to get a few more people to work with me.

[KasperVld]

Thread closed on request