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Creating the Software Art In Tron Legacy

Posted by Soulskill on from the hack-their-internets dept.

hownottowrite writes "A software artist has posted an overview of the coding behind the tools used to create Tron Legacy's special effects. 'In Tron, the hacker was not supposed to be snooping around on a network; he was supposed to kill a process. So we went with posix kill and also had him pipe ps into grep. I also ended up using emacs eshell to make the terminal more l33t. The team was delighted to see my emacs performance — splitting the editor into nested panes and running different modes. I was tickled that I got emacs into a block buster movie.' Ok, it's mostly a lot of awesome images, but there's a nifty reveal about an homage to Bit."

124 comments

  1. Zero comments and the site is still slashed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looks like we're going to have to wait for a reboot. Good thing there's Daft Punk playing...

    1. Re:Zero comments and the site is still slashed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PDbfWzLJrQUJ:jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php%3Fq%3D178+http://jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php%3Fq%3D178&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz&source=www.google.co.nz

      Cached version.

  2. Windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most likely, in the future a project of that magnitude would not be running on cobbled together free software.

    1. Re:Windows by RobbieCrash · · Score: 2

      Aside from the fact that Encom is/was a free software company.

      --
      Keep on knockin'
      https://robbiecrash.me
    2. Re:Windows by troff · · Score: 1

      Having seen both movies and played 2.0, I have to ask... where did you get that idea?

    3. Re:Windows by RobbieCrash · · Score: 1

      In the opening scene when Flynn is talking to Sam, he states that He, Tron and CLU developed a system where all information was free and open and about how beautiful that is.

      At the Encom OS 12 release in Legacy Allan asks about the prices charged for Flynn OS, renamed Encom OS, and is then told that the idea of sharing or giving away the software disappeared with Flynn.Then the source is released, which makes the OS open source, even if just due to malicious reasons.

      Then Sam is arguing with the security guard on the roof and says "You can't steal something that was designed to be free."

      I'm relatively sure there are also other references in Legacy and 2.0 which talk about free and open systems.

      I doubt there's anything about it in the first movie though.

      --
      Keep on knockin'
      https://robbiecrash.me
    4. Re:Windows by troff · · Score: 1
      I'm sorry (and not passive-aggressively, either); I'm afraid you're entirely wrong in almost every way except for your direct quotes.

      In the opening scene when Flynn is talking to Sam, he states that He, Tron and CLU developed a system where all information was free and open and about how beautiful that is.

      Unfortunately, the system to which you're/Kevin was referring was the System that TRON and CLU were in; Flynn's standalone "sun4m" in the arcade's basement; without even so much as a serial port connected to it. The only ways in and out were the CD drive (from Betrayal), the Laser (and whatever bodgied-up USB port Sam apparently used to connect his Nokia smartphone to a 1980s computer). You've actually made CLU's point - Flynn locked them into this "digital Galapagos Island" and left them to rot for their equivalent of (assuming the director's stated 50:1 ratio of) a thousand years.

      At the Encom OS 12 release in Legacy Allan asks about the prices charged for Flynn OS, renamed Encom OS, and is then told that the idea of sharing or giving away the software disappeared with Flynn.

      The Disney chronology says Flynn retired from game design (and hence, software production) in 1985 to focus on his "research"; then disappeared in 1989. So for 24-odd years, Flynn was not in charge of Encom. If you read Betrayal or listen to what Alan said in Legacy, Kevin left the running of the company to the Board.

      We can very safely assume that the behaviour Mackie displays in the midnight boardroom meeting is Standard Operating Procedure for Encom - commercial software.

      Even before all of that, we only ever saw Flynn's game software in arcade machines. Before the real world's Fuzebox or Pandora, how many open-source arcade games have you seen?

      Then the source is released, which makes the OS open source, even if just due to malicious reasons.

      Richard M. Stallman and his katanas would like a horribly painful word with you. Steve Ballmer will smash what's left of you with a chair.

      The source was stolen. For Sam to have made Encom OS12 "Open Source", he would have to have re-licensed it as Open Source.

      Which, by the way, shows how little Kitsis and Horowitz know. Dillinger Jr.'s solution to "say it was the plan to release it free all along" would collapse the very moment the TRON-world's version of Slashdot were to download the torrent and inspect the licensing terms inside.

      Then Sam is arguing with the security guard on the roof and says "You can't steal something that was designed to be free."

      "Licensed". Not "designed". Thank you for providing yet more evidence that Kitsis and Horowitz are clueless, pathetic, incompetent hacks who couldn't be bothered doing an ounce of research, let alone critical thinking, before being paid thousands of dollars for their ignorant scribblings inscribed upon a beautifully-graphically-polished, well-musically-scored, yet-still-excrementally-stinking turd.

      I'm sure she doesn't need me to; but I would weep for Bonnie MacBird. I would love dearly to be able to read a copy of her original draft of TRON before sellout-Lisberger, Disney or Charlie Haas got to it.

      I too, quasi-worshipped Lisberger, until I heard what he did to MacBird's original script (and noticed how he'd gotten behind the new movie too, after comparing it with his statements in the 20th Anniversary DVD).

      I'm relatively sure there are also other references in Legacy and 2.0 which talk about free and open systems.

      I doubt there's anything about it in the first movie though.

      Actually, by the criteria you're using, there was. TRON, in trying to convince Dumont to hide them from the System Guards and let him access the I/O Tower, told Dumont that "this could be a free System again"; that Dumont would have "Programs lining up to use" the Tower again.

    5. Re:Windows by RobbieCrash · · Score: 1

      While I admit that it must've sucked for the programs inside the grid to be locked there for 1,000 years, that doesn't change that the system was designed to be "free and open." Which to me means, free and open. Whatever happened to the system after CLU took over, and after the board ousted Allen, the system was designed to be free and open. The intent behind the system, prior to Flynn getting trapped inside it, was that it was to be free and open. Which, I guess doesn't mean that Encom was in support of the concepts of OSS, just that Flynn believed in them and wanted information to be free. The physical box that the system was stored in doesn't really mean anything either, as it was just the research station Flynn was using and shouldn't be taken as the final form that the Digital Frontier would eventually take.

      Your arcade game point is also totally valid.

      My comment about the source being stolen and released was nothing but my being glib.

      But, at any rate, after reading your points, I agree, Encom in present day Tron-land, is not a FOSS company. I also tip my hat to you, your knowledge is impressive.

      I will offer, that once Flynn took over, it was supposed to be. Barring his being trapped, the principals that Kevin and Allen held would've made it so. Note, that this is just me trying to get any points in a debate with you in which I am clearly outmatched in terms of background knowledge, and thus interpretation of the facts.

      --
      Keep on knockin'
      https://robbiecrash.me
    6. Re:Windows by troff · · Score: 1

      Sir, you are congratulating me for, what is effectively a silly almost-obsession on my part. I just find too much enthusiasm on this topic; I should be grateful it doesn't make me dysfunctional in this society. You are most gracious.

      I should also point out that you're right regarding Flynn's principle; having experienced what a "free and open" system should be like, he would design such a system - to the point where the Programs don't even have to respond to User requests. I think you're entirely right.

      What this means though is that I too am also entirely right - Kitsis and Horowitz screwed up. The TRON-Sector website supposedly has, posted in one of its forum pages, an e-mail interview with Bonnie MacBird - original writer of the TRON story... which was then "polished" by Lisberger, Haas and others. Apparently, if it's true, MacBird's story was much more thorough in working through the story logic.

      If someone like MacBird (who interviewed, then eventually MARRIED an actual programmer) had written Legacy, she almost certainly would've gotten the whole damn thing MUCH more right.

      My hat, sir; it is tipped to you.

    7. Re:Windows by RobbieCrash · · Score: 1

      I 100% advocate debates like this. Especially ones about trivial and fictional matters.

      I really love Tron, and Legacy and 2.0. But unlike some of my other fictional obsessions, I don't know enough about it to actually debate the 'factual' aspects of the universe.

      You've made me search out the book now, because I am interested in furthering my knowledge of the canon.

      I don't doubt that had someone who /knew/ something about computers would've been able to put more accurate nomenclature in the movies, but as is, we get what we get.

      Hats tipped to civil debates all around! Had I any mod points, your arguments would've got them +1 insightful.

      --
      Keep on knockin'
      https://robbiecrash.me
  3. So emacs was in a blockbuster movie by Anubis+IV · · Score: 0

    And yet, this will change nothing. The argument goes on.

    1. Re:So emacs was in a blockbuster movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're exactly right. It doesn't change how bad emacs is.

    2. Re:So emacs was in a blockbuster movie by antifoidulus · · Score: 1

      Well, it does prove one thing. In the future, humans will have evolved more hands so that they can actually USE emacs.

      --
      Monstar L
    3. Re:So emacs was in a blockbuster movie by davester666 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Who cares. The Net showed off Jasik's Debugger!

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    4. Re:So emacs was in a blockbuster movie by bmo · · Score: 1

      No, we won't evolve them, we'll build them.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkyZGZRnQb4

      Perfect for emacs.

      --
      BMO

    5. Re:So emacs was in a blockbuster movie by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      If emacs had ctrl alt shift meta laserbeam I'd switch. :laser is too clunky.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    6. Re:So emacs was in a blockbuster movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I type like that with 10 fingers. Errorlevel 2%.

      Imagine the volumes I could write with such hands. If only I had something worthwhile to say...

    7. Re:So emacs was in a blockbuster movie by slimjim8094 · · Score: 2

      Hey, at least it doesn't make me enter a new mode to start editing text - you know, the 'delete everything' mode instead of the other one, 'beep constantly'

      --
      I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
    8. Re:So emacs was in a blockbuster movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I type like that with 10 fingers. Errorlevel 2%.

      Imagine the volumes I could write with such hands. If only I had something worthwhile to say...

      Not all of us are Pandas you insensitive clod!

  4. TRON needed more TRON by bpgslashdotaccount · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can't post anything intelligent about the article, (MCP seems to have locked me out), so I'll say something about the movie: I mostly loved it, but it needed more TRON. He should have been a much more important character. Users' sake, his name is half of the movie title!

    1. Re:TRON needed more TRON by bpgslashdotaccount · · Score: 2

      Coral cache has it: http://jtnimoy.net.nyud.net/workviewer.php?q=178

    2. Re:TRON needed more TRON by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It needed a more artificial environment too. Since when did the digital world come to look like ours without the color? The cool thing about Tron 1 was the pure fantasy of it all.

    3. Re:TRON needed more TRON by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's pretty pointless reasoning.... Lord of the Rings featured about no screen time for the Lord of the Rings but really has no effect on the quality of the movie.
      (That stupid eye doesn't count)

    4. Re:TRON needed more TRON by xenn · · Score: 1

      Yeah about the quality of that movie,

      character moves from a to b encounters c, moves from d to e encounters f, etc... ad nauseum.

      how does the substance of this movie compare?

    5. Re:TRON needed more TRON by Score+Whore · · Score: 1

      You forgot the gay elves.

    6. Re:TRON needed more TRON by bonch · · Score: 1

      The teasers for the next Tron film indicate Alan Bradley will play a larger role, and Encom employees have even apparently nicknamed him "Tron," so in a way, Tron will get more screen time.

    7. Re:TRON needed more TRON by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 1

      It needed a lot more programs and a lot less monomyth. I found the grid a lot more interesting than the "hero's journey."

    8. Re:TRON needed more TRON by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 1

      Blame Chris Vogler and Robert McKee.

    9. Re:TRON needed more TRON by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. Also the story in Legacy was crap. Then again the story in the original Tron wasn't all that hot, but it was much more acceptable because it took place in the fantastic world of the original.

      I'm ignoring Legacy and choosing to retain Tron 2.0 as the true, canon sequel.

    10. Re:TRON needed more TRON by troff · · Score: 1

      So, in Legacy, Programs have hair and skin texture, don't have any processing purpose or interaction with their original Users. The Cycles have Engines and need to be "on the Grid" for their power; the fact that in the original movie they did things that were physically impossible was missed to make them "more realistic" for Legacy.

      So, you're saying that in spite of the fact that Kitsis and Horowitz took the unworldly, non-physical, utterly different TRON universe and turned it into Generic Disney Fantasy Fodder Universe #12B WASN'T ENOUGH... and that now "TRON" will just be a person's nickname.

      Just when I thought Disney, Kitsis and Horowitz couldn't COMPLETELY 0xFFFF up "TRON" anymore. Pricks.

      Syd Mead ws in my hometown on tour last year. I asked what he thought of the upcoming movie. His reply amounted to "Disney have very good lawyers". What a crying shame Lisberger went along with this. I wonder what Bonnie MacBird thought of it all.

    11. Re:TRON needed more TRON by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 2

      TRON: Legacy should have had a lot of things. It should have had more lightcycle action. It should have had some Recognizer action. It should have had some tank action. It should have had sets that looked like they were from a computer world and less like the real world. It should have had the feel of a computer world instead of just a futuristic world. It should have had a good story.

      It should have had a lot of things.

      Twenty-eight fucking years...

      --
      Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
    12. Re:TRON needed more TRON by halivar · · Score: 1

      It's a constructed digital reality with whatever rules Flynn put into it. It is the way it is because the Users coded it that way. Flynn coded it with physics, and gave programs hair and makeup. Anything other than 1's and 0's on the screen is going to require some suspension of disbelief.

    13. Re:TRON needed more TRON by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 1

      Just when I thought Disney, Kitsis and Horowitz couldn't COMPLETELY 0xFFFF up "TRON" anymore. Pricks.

      This comment, combined with your username, made me laugh this morning. :-)

    14. Re:TRON needed more TRON by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed, they did TRON: Legacy wrong. They screwed it up, through and through.

      This seems to be related to Disney's decision to suspend all rentals and sales of the original TRON for a few months before the release. They were afraid people would go rent the original, dislike it, and not want to see the sequel.

      You see....TRON: Legacy was aiming for a different, LARGER target audience. They didn't want to appease the computer-geeks who liked the computer-geekiness of TRON. They wanted to hit a normal audience of normal people who just like surreal special effects and the hero's journey. That is a much larger group, meaning much more money. They just picked TRON because everything else they could think of had already been done to death.

      So...TRON 2 was not made for people who liked TRON. It was specifically made for the sort of person who would dislike TRON. Crazy.

    15. Re:TRON needed more TRON by Rizimar · · Score: 1

      I understand that the User gets sucked into the machine and is experiencing everything from the inside, but I'd argue that it's similar to how cyberspace was depicted 30+ years ago in stories like William Gibson's Neuromancer or Vernor Vinge's True Names: here, cyberspace was a heavy flow of data that was given imagery by the human mind to identify it through abstraction.

      For example, in True Names, the equivalent of a login screen becomes a tame dragon that asks specific questions and notices if you move in particular ways. It only becomes hostile if you do something incorrectly. Yet nothing in the code suggests the image of a dragon (or the image of anything for that matter); that's all invented by the human's mind based on the behavior and function of that code.

      I imagine that this is what happens in Tron as well. Dots on the screen become lightcycles. Processes that want to detect and terminate the users become hostile enemies. Maybe even CLU's personality was an interpretation of the mind.

    16. Re:TRON needed more TRON by troff · · Score: 1

      Yes... um... you're missing the point. The point is not that it's an artificial reality and any rules which can be conceived can be applied.

      The point is twofold:
      - that all the things which made TRON unique and engaging have been stripped out and hence made it into another undifferentiated fantasy setting and
      - that Kitsis and Horowitz are exceptionally poor writers who screwed up the movie with egregiously bad writing.

      I mean, let's not take "that's not how computers work" into account:
      - I could still bag it for not adhering to the original TRON (the Disney site said Dr Gibbs wrote the MCP).
      - Disney did the big cross-media thing (Evolution the game and Betrayal the comic). The storylines of the cross-media contradicted the movie. That's not-good writing right there.
      - The movie contradicted itself INTERNALLY. Question 1a: What made Quorra so special? Question 1b: Why, then, did Flynn say he partially wrote Quorra? Question 2a: Why couldn't Rinzler go after the Runner off the Grid? Question 2b: So how did CLU and co. go after Quorra and the Flynns from Kevin's hideout and why couldn't Rinzler have done that originally?

      Disney 0xFFFFed up bigtime. Disney not only hired a pair of pathetic hacks who couldn't be bothered to logic-check their own writing, but Disney didn't even do any quality checking. If we wrote code like that, IT WOULDN'T COMPILE. ... and yet, Disney are rolling in the freaking cash. I didn't wait 28 years to have a career-inspiring movie get wrecked-up by people whose STANDARD JOB it is to not wreck-up movies and get paid to do it.

    17. Re:TRON needed more TRON by troff · · Score: 1

      /me bows.

      The username derives not from the movie, but my surname. And the points we discuss here are forcing me to control and choose my language carefully, But you're very welcome. :-)

    18. Re:TRON needed more TRON by AP31R0N · · Score: 1

      You might like a movie from 28 years ago called TRON. That's what you described.

      --
      Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
  5. Google's Cache by sgtstein · · Score: 5, Informative

    This might be helpful... http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PDbfWzLJrQUJ:jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php%3Fq%3D178+http://jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php%3Fq%3D178+cache&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

  6. uh oh, talking out of channels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Stallman and the FSF may now insist that the movie be released on DVD as GNU/Tron Legacy.

    1. Re:uh oh, talking out of channels by c0lo · · Score: 1

      Stallman and the FSF may now insist that the movie be released on DVD as GNU/Tron Legacy.

      Source-code as well.

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    2. Re:uh oh, talking out of channels by xenn · · Score: 0

      that's really a truly great idea.

      very few musicians have even tackled 5.1+ surround audio, let alone release each track as a bunch of separate mixable objects (ie bassline, drum track, or vocals as an individual sound file or track)

      that's how I intend, and I expect DJ culture to lap it up.

      It will take time, but before too long it will be defacto in the 'live' scene.

    3. Re:uh oh, talking out of channels by manicb · · Score: 1

      Might want to look at this. They've put up multi-tracks for the last three albums.

    4. Re:uh oh, talking out of channels by Ex+Machina · · Score: 1

      DVD? With DRM? Stallman?

    5. Re:uh oh, talking out of channels by Kenshin · · Score: 1

      I'm sure he has a GNU/Tron Dance ready to perform in celebration.

      --

      Does it make you happy you're so strange?

    6. Re:uh oh, talking out of channels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Without CSS encryption, obviously.

  7. So EMACS is used in a feature film... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...but can it edit text yet?

    1. Re:So EMACS is used in a feature film... by c0lo · · Score: 1

      ...but can it edit text yet?

      Well... yes... sort-of. But why go with key-emulation when you can have the real thing?

      (grin)

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  8. Proving that incredible visuals cannor overcome by assemblerex · · Score: 1, Insightful

    poor, shallow storytelling.

    1. Re:Proving that incredible visuals cannor overcome by Tragek · · Score: 0

      or the obvious lack of a story editor...

    2. Re:Proving that incredible visuals cannor overcome by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      But at least they had a text editor!

      ...

      That can play Tetris!

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    3. Re:Proving that incredible visuals cannor overcome by internettoughguy · · Score: 1

      In Hollywood blockbusters the visual effects are usually the most artistic, original and inventive part of the film. Usually that means the making of is far more interesting than the final product.

    4. Re:Proving that incredible visuals cannor overcome by troff · · Score: 0

      I wish that was globally true; but the majority of people seem to disagree. Worse, a majority of that majority most likely hasn't seen the original.
      I've been on a number of fora discussing the movie. When I point out the plot holes or the superior writing of the original (and no, I'm not being sarcastic, yes I know it was an effects-driven movie), I've seen responses that include "come on, you have to cut them some slack, no it was really good, how sad it must be in your world if you think Legacy was bad, could you do better"... in spite of the fact I'm not being paid to do so (and in spite of that, I still think I could indeed do better.
      I swear, I can't tell if these are too-young and illiterate, critical-thinking incapable idiots or Disney astroturfers.
      Would it be possible to fork an Open Source TRON? Write a version with new characters and strip out all the Disney trademarks so those bastards couldn't sue when the community puts out something better than those sad hack writers Horowitz and Kitsis?

    5. Re:Proving that incredible visuals cannor overcome by troff · · Score: 1

      ... and still tried to log in with a "backdoor".

    6. Re:Proving that incredible visuals cannor overcome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mr potato head! Mr potato head! Backdoors are not secrets!

    7. Re:Proving that incredible visuals cannor overcome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      assuming you call EMACS a text editor

    8. Re:Proving that incredible visuals cannor overcome by Thud457 · · Score: 1

      Maybe we can get those guys that did Star Wreck interested, after they're done with their space Nazis film.

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  9. Ubuntu '86 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was more interested in that old ass computer that has been sitting in storage since the 80's was running Ubuntu.

    1. Re:Ubuntu '86 by Stupendoussteve · · Score: 1

      It was running "SolarOS"

    2. Re:Ubuntu '86 by wagnerrp · · Score: 1

      While I do see the GNU blend of 'top', various programs associated with the Linux kernel, and the 'Xorg' server that was not released until 2004, I don't see anything to distinguish from one blend of Linux to the next, unless are you making the incorrect assumption that all Linux is a blend of Ubuntu? I would be more impressed about that old ass computer that has been sitting in storage since the 80's had 2GB of memory.

    3. Re:Ubuntu '86 by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      In the theaters I laughed when he ran top and I saw XOrg running from the 1986 computer. HA.

      Try running that on a machine from 2004 and see how much resources it eats up.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
  10. Real men edit with vi by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 2

    I spit on your keyboard, noov ctrl-x ctrl-x ctrl-i b ctrl-dd...awe, damnit...

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
    1. Re:Real men edit with vi by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      You're just setting yourself up for defeat. In the end, feature bloat always wins.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    2. Re:Real men edit with vi by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 1

      Real men write binaries with copy con.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    3. Re:Real men edit with vi by AP31R0N · · Score: 1

      The line is "My eyes! The goggles do nothing!".

      --
      Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
  11. Legacy by Dragon_Punch · · Score: 0

    Legacy will never be as good as the orignal. It looks spectacular but, i coulnd't care less about it.

    --
    Pylons?
  12. Keyboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's funny how that onscreen keyboard for use with emacs completely lacks a control key. But it does have caps lock, so I guess it could just be remapped.

  13. REAL MEN USE EMACS by snizzle · · Score: 1

    meta-x move-one-character-to-the-right ...... excellent (rub finger tips together) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKUOB8MN4Kc

    1. Re:REAL MEN USE EMACS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Emacs is the editor for the Cult of Stallman.

      Intelligent people use vi.

    2. Re:REAL MEN USE EMACS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong. Linus Torvalds, hardly a Stallman cult member, is an emacs user.

        In my experience, emacs is preferred by programmers, and vi by sysadmins.

    3. Re:REAL MEN USE EMACS by xenn · · Score: 1

      please to explain

  14. I know somebody... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ... who used emacs.

  15. Barely on topic: pkill/pgrep by bipbop · · Score: 2

    ps | grep? I've been happy since pgrep was added (to Solaris first, but then reimplemented on Linux and FreeBSD/NetBSD). I thought I'd mention it here in case some people reading haven't run into it yet, 'cause even though it's a pretty minor thing, it's neat :-)

    1. Re:Barely on topic: pkill/pgrep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh, never knew about pgrep and pkill. Thanks for the heads-up.

    2. Re:Barely on topic: pkill/pgrep by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 1

      pgrep doesn't give me enough context for my taste.
      I will almost always prefer "ps | grep", as it gives me a chance to confirm that the pid I'm looking at is the pid I want to kill.

      --
      -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  16. Interesting Tie-In by Mister+Transistor · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since there is nothing to see here I've got an interesting Tron story. I must have watched the original at least 25-30 times through the years, I own a 12" laserdisc and DVD's of it, and never really noticed before, but after re-watching it on TV the other day due to sheer boredom, I finally noticed a name at the end credits I never recognized before - Peter Jurasik. It suddenly dawned on me that was the actor who played Londo Molari on Babylon 5 - you know, the Centauri ambassador with the Peacock / Bozo hair. I tried to think of who it was in the movie, and realized it's the accounting /actuarial program that gets imprisoned at the beginning along with ROM? CROM?. He says of the MCP - "Who does he calculate he is, anyway?". That's him! Just thought I'd share that bit of trivia with everyone.

    --
    -- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
    1. Re:Interesting Tie-In by blincoln · · Score: 1

      The Bit was also voiced by the same actor who did the voiceover work for Kosh, and of course there's the Bruce Boxleitner and David Warner connections too.

      --
      "...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
    2. Re:Interesting Tie-In by pacbowl · · Score: 2

      IMDB actually has some interesting trivia about TRON. Such as the random pulses in the light ribbons on the background walls were glitches in the effects so they added sound to them and incorporated them into the world.

    3. Re:Interesting Tie-In by sparkz · · Score: 2

      Don't keep us waiting - what's the interesting story? ;-)

      --
      Author, Shell Scripting : Expert Re
  17. Anyone catch the output of uname? by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, now everyone will copy and paste the output from the DVD, but I saw it in the theatre.

    And I saw Flynn key in "uname -a" and I tried to parse the listing for interesthing things.

    Alas, all I caught as the OS was named "SolarOS" and the arch was "sun4m". A tribute to ye olde SunOS, I guess (SunOS/sparc).

    Though, I'd love that nice popup history window...

    1. Re:Anyone catch the output of uname? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Since noone seems to actually do it, here you go:

      $ whoami
      Flynn
      $ uname -a
      SolarOS 4.0.1 Generic_50203-02 sun4m i386
      Unknown.Unknown
      $ login -n root
      Login incorrect
      login: backdoor
      No home directory specified in password file!
      Logging in with home=/
      # bin/history
      488 cd /opt/LLL/controller/laser/
      489 vi LLSDLaserControl.c
      490 make
      491 make install
      492 ./sanity_check
      493 ./configure -o test.cfg
      494 vi test.cfg
      495 vi ~/last_will_and_testament.txt
      496 cat /proc/meminfo
      497 ps -a -x -u
      498 kill -9 2207
      499 kill 2208
      500 ps -a -x -u
      501 touch /opt/LLL/run/ok
      502 LLSDLaserControl -ok 1

      And of course he straight goes to running it, instead of cat'ing the testament, or actually checking what it does ..
      # bin/LLSDLaserControl -ok 1

    2. Re:Anyone catch the output of uname? by troff · · Score: 2

      (The following is a meta-post, with only the hint of a threat of a future on-topic posting.)

      I don't know who's downvoting all these comments. I appreciate the "informative" and "humorous" nature of this.

      Fine, mods. Downvote me, I don't give a flying. It'll just prove the point; there's a lot of downvoting of perfectly reasonable comments and criticisms here. Parent AC is right, it was stupid to run a program without even trying to know what it does. ... I'd include a further criticism of the movie's poor writing and handling of Flynn even HAVING the laser in his basement, but the last criticism I posted of the writers got a 0 and I wouldn't be surprised to see it dropped further. Sheesh. It's like being on ${other_fora_I_won't_name}.

    3. Re:Anyone catch the output of uname? by hey! · · Score: 1

      But wasn't SunOS pre-Solaris a BSD varoamt? The screen cap clearly shows "ps -ef" being piped to grep; that's East Coast style (SysV). Back in the day when we were two coasts divided by a common operating system, the hippie Bezerkley hackers would have typed "ps axu". So I guess that "SolarOS" is just the movie world's version of Solaris.

      And people claim serious cinema is *inaccessible*.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    4. Re:Anyone catch the output of uname? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      But wasn't SunOS pre-Solaris a BSD varoamt?

      SunOS4 is based on BSD (4.3 and 4.4 for the latest versions like 4.1.4 IIRC.) SunOS5 is based on SVR5. Solaris 1.x is SunOS4 with OpenWindows. Solaris 2.x is SunOS5 with CDE or GNOME. SunOS5 systems with a full install have a full set of BSD userland tools for backwards compatibility, unless they stopped that.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Anyone catch the output of uname? by sparkz · · Score: 1

      SunOS is the kernel of the old and current Sun operating system. The Solaris Operating Environment includes the SunOS kernel. Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.10 Generic January 2005

      --
      Author, Shell Scripting : Expert Re
    6. Re:Anyone catch the output of uname? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Freeze framing the scene showed me a lot of interesting things...

      http://i.imgur.com/Jfy4p.jpg

      Check out the "top" he was running in the upper left window. The guy's got 2GB of RAM on that thing... in 1989!

  18. not the first time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Emacs and KDE (2.x and 3.x, iirc) featured prominently in Zuckerberg's systems on The Social Network.

  19. Processing community? by sapphire+wyvern · · Score: 1

    Can anyone comment on what the blog post author means by the "Processing" community? What's he talking about?

    1. Re:Processing community? by Haven · · Score: 3, Informative

      Processing is a set of libraries that I think use Java to do "creative coding"

      lots of generative art is made with "Processing"

      I do a lot of work with openframeworks, which was also used along with cinder and houdini.

      check out my work @ http://university-records.com/

    2. Re:Processing community? by sapphire+wyvern · · Score: 1

      Cool, thanks. Very informative.

    3. Re:Processing community? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is also the JavaScript version of Processing that works with Canvas.

      Processing JS

      I remember making screensavers with stuff similar to this.
      One being a simple set of triangles moving around on screen, to more advanced large-sided polygons spawning other polygons.
      Evolutionary Processing is really fun to play around with as well.

      I really need to put some of this code up somewhere one day. Maybe with Processing JS, first versions were on YaBASIC on PS2.

    4. Re:Processing community? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      processing.org

  20. Emacs by Mike610544 · · Score: 1

    I was tickled that I got emacs into a block buster movie.

    Always good to see Emacs getting some screen time.

    I'm reminded of the line from The Social Network "It's definitely necessary to break out emacs and modify that perl script." Anyone who's done screen scraping could totally relate to that sequence (PHP and redirects ... I'll come back to that one) but I imagine even regular people can subconsciously detect the difference between realistic computer stuff and "I'm going to virtualize an inverse Java applet to localize the virus!"

    --
    ... also, I can kill you with my brain.
    1. Re:Emacs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was more surprised to finally see one of the two people who actually use emacs. ;)

    2. Re:Emacs by gnapster · · Score: 1

      It is, indeed, good for emacs to get some screen time. I am happy for it, and wish it well. After all, it never gets any time on my screen!

    3. Re:Emacs by RMingin · · Score: 1

      No, no, "I'll create a GUI interface using Visual Basic, see if I can track an IP address".

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU

      FTFY (even though I swore I'd never use that acronym).

      --
      The preceding comment is my own, and in no way construes an opinon of the Emperor of Mankind.
  21. Interesting writeup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not mine, but I thought the speculation about how a virtual world would work to be quite interesting....

    http://allthatiswrong.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/thoughts-on-tron-legacy/

  22. Mirror? by subk · · Score: 1

    TFA is totally slashdotted..

    --
    Now, if you'll excuse me, I have backups to corrupt.
  23. An editor in a movie! by Dieppe · · Score: 1

    Bah, who needs emacs! I'll stick with vi anyday! :wq

  24. www.jtnimoy.net works - jtnimoy.net doesn't by newtbrick · · Score: 1

    I don't think it counts as a slashdot if the editors link the site wrong. Furthermore, it looks like the images are hosted at amazon web services. So I think the site (when linked to properly) will handle the traffic just fine.

    1. Re:www.jtnimoy.net works - jtnimoy.net doesn't by jtnimoy · · Score: 1

      it counts as a slashdot in my books ;) but i think reddit and gizmodo had my server knocked out before /. posted. i just spent an evening migrating the site to a better server, and I did end up moving the images to s3 less than a day ago. also, my php had been calling getimagesize() on all the images to generate html width,height attributes, and that tron page has like 20 mb of jpgs on it. the `www' subdomain and the regular DNS should both work now .. at least it has already propagated to where I am. it was totally my bad for not predicting the spike. i will never call getimagesize() again without caching it.

    2. Re:www.jtnimoy.net works - jtnimoy.net doesn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well I am glad you went through all the effort as it was certainly interesting. You should have seen my girlfriends reaction to my own excitement at the fact that they were using legitimate Unix commands in the movie.

    3. Re:www.jtnimoy.net works - jtnimoy.net doesn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But did jtnimoy.net suffer the slashdot effect? After all, no one knows what causes the slashdot effect, since no one here reads the article. We could learn a lot about the metaphysical nature of the effect if we can determine whether it works when the link in the slashdot summary is misspelled.

  25. It's about time... by sir1real · · Score: 1

    ...someone did it right. Now somebody needs to go back and digitally alter the original film so that Flynn is entering legitimate Unix commands into the terminal instead of the made up BS they put in there.

    1. Re:It's about time... by cstacy · · Score: 1

      ...someone did it right. Now somebody needs to go back and digitally alter the original film so that Flynn is entering legitimate Unix commands into the terminal instead of the made up BS they put in there.

      Flynn SIGKILL'd first.

    2. Re:It's about time... by sir1real · · Score: 1

      I don't remember a 'kill -9' in the original movie.

  26. I knew somebody... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... who used emacs.

    He later lost his mind, gluing paper letters to himself in a latex suit, running around throwing paper letters at people.
    He was then hit by a bus.
    Sadly the curse lives on. It will consume more people.

    Emacs: The demon program.
    Coming soon to a theatre near you!
    Dedicated to Richard. 2011/05/11-2011/05/11

  27. Door code unlocker app for N8 used in Tron Legacy by BITIMPRESS · · Score: 1
    Hi,

    We write apps for Nokia Symbian phones and publish them on Ovi Store:
    http://store.ovi.com/publisher/BITIMPRESS/

    After liking Tron Legacy alot we wrote a screensaver which mimics the behaviour of the door code unlocker app Flynn is using:
    here is a video of our app in action:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FhvPpIF_zM

    here is the Tron Legacy trailer where the N8 is used to unlock the door (Nokia product placement), starts around 0:49
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkFErfVoBW0

    You can get our app for free on Ovi Store:
    http://store.ovi.com/content/99490

    (the Ovi Store link does not work yet on N8 and other Symbian^3 phones since the Symbian^3 app is currently in Nokia QA so it should be up in a few days).
    You can download it directly too (on the N8 too) from our site:
    http://apps.bitimpress.com/codeunlocker_installer.sis

    The app is enjoying quite nice success, several thousand downloads per day, last peak was 16k per day :)

    PS: if any of the Tron creators read this, how was the original footage created ? The N8 just playing a video of the code unlocking sequence or was it a custom app written for the N8 ?

    thanks,
    BitImpress
    http://www.bitimpress.com/

  28. Extremely easy movie to make by Bardwick · · Score: 0

    Take the Matrix and some Star Trek movies, put them in a blender, done. There was nothing new in this movie.

    1. Re:Extremely easy movie to make by gknoy · · Score: 1

      I get that you don't like the plot. I won't argue that (even if I *did* enjoy it). Get over it. This is an article about the cool nerd-effects that some of the art team did, with high res screenshots that many of us won't see unless we pause a high-def movie on an HDTV, and even then might not notice.

      - technically accurate computer use, a rarity in most films.
      - geometrically-shaped fireworks. Wow. I never even noticed the fireworks in the film, but there's something cool about that
      - talking about the various background-ish effects and how they were made (in not-enough-detail).

      This was an awesome article, presented by someone who put a lot of effort into making software-generated effects that are very different (?) from the typical modeling of artificial humans or CGI spaceships. I found it tremendously interesting, and want to learn a lot more about it. It's petty of you to dismiss the article (and the work that the visual effects team did) simply because you think that the movie was "easy" to make.

    2. Re:Extremely easy movie to make by troff · · Score: 1

      It was indeed, as you say, an awesome article about the awesome graphics.

      What a shame the computer use wasn't THAT technically accurate. Or that the plot - THE KEY COMPONENT of the movie - could've had a fraction of that skill and talent put into it.

      And Slashdot hasn't done a lot of Legacy discussion (there's probably more Original discussion here). So, given that we're not bagging the article itself, please let us express our disappoinment with the incredible disparity of works and efforts here.

  29. THIS MOVIE WAS TOTALLY UNREALISTIC! by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    not enough 1's and 0's.

    And certainly never enough screw-sorting!

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  30. Re:Door code unlocker app for N8 used in Tron Lega by RobbieThe1st · · Score: 1

    Nice! Now all we need is a port for the N900... Or better yet, hook it into John or a wep-cracker; Make something both cool -and- useful!

    All joking aside, cudos to you guys for creating - and releasing for free - something as cool as that. Good work!

  31. You can tell the movie Tron is fiction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...because if it was real then they would have used vi. I mean who uses emacs?

  32. Soft-Core CPUs and TRON by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

    I saw Tron: Legacy in theatres long before my current project which involves loading CPU images into an FPGA bank and running software on top of that.

    Though I've always wondered how that would translate to the TRON world - after all, I can take down the soft-CPU (it's an ARM core) with a click of a button, reload it with another ARM code (and peripherals) with another click, etc.

    Always wondered how that would translate. (And while I don't load Linux on them, others apparently do load Linux on them as well).

    Yeah, it makes no sense, but sometimes it's fun to consider what happens.

  33. How to Duplicate that Interface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slightly off-topic, but otherwise related - I would be interested in if there is any way, in real life, to duplicate the interface with the terminal and the touch keyboard...

  34. Fail at physics? by meithan · · Score: 1

    Impressive as his graphics may be, it seems the author fails at basic physics:

    "Fireworks, mmmm. I started with a regular physics simulation where a particle has an upward force applied at birth, sending it upward while gravity pulls it back down resulting in a parabola"

    Didn't he mean "where a particle has an upward VELOCITY applied at birth"?

    1. Re:Fail at physics? by Pantero+Blanco · · Score: 1

      Upward force is applied to the object. Upward velocity is the result.

      Problem?

    2. Re:Fail at physics? by gnapster · · Score: 1

      Probably. Although it is interesting to note that a very realistic simulation of fireworks would start with particles at rest, with an upward force applied at birth.

    3. Re:Fail at physics? by meithan · · Score: 1

      While your're correct that it's possible, somehow I think it's not what was actually done. I'm no expert on computer effects, but it appears to me that it's much more likely that the particles were created with an upward velocity component and then subject to only the force of gravity. I teach basic physics at a university and it's a common mistake to speak of "force" when one really means "velocity" or "momentum". Phrases such as "the object impacted the ground with great force" are common among students. While you *can* talk of a force in that situation (and that force certainly has a relation to the object's velocity), the concept the speaker usually means is velocity or momentum, not force.

    4. Re:Fail at physics? by Pantero+Blanco · · Score: 1

      The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that you're right, seeing as he just wanted the illusion of fireworks and not a detailed (physics-wise) simulation. Applying an actual force and then calculating the velocity would have been a waste of time for him, so he probably just assigned a velocity at birth and (erroneously) called it a force in the article.