Nodezator v1.4 released! (Python node editor in the public domain)

[KennedyRichard]

Hello, everyone!

I'm Kennedy Guerra, I'll be 33 this month. It's been over a year since I released Nodezator, the generalist multi-purpose Python node editor, totally free of charge, to the public domain.

You can find it here: https://github.com/IndiePython/nodezator



I'd like to announce its new 1.4 version. You can install it with pip install --upgrade nodezator or use it as a standalone app by following the instructions in the repo's README file.

There's also an online user manual: https://manual.nodezator.com

Here's a 58 seconds video with a simple showcase of its capabilities:



And here's a link to an older 48 minutes video presenting it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlQJvuU7Z_8

In case you didn't know about it, it allows one to convert Python callables into visual nodes that are loaded from Python scripts into the app. Like this, for instance:



It also allows you to view and export the node graphs as Python code. This way your code is never overly dependent on the app. You can also export to other formats like .png, .svg and .html with svg embedded in it.

This new 1.4 version brings many new features, like the ability to visualize 2D images on the graph itself, like in the images below where I create and display Pillow images and matplotlib graphs:





Another very interesting new feature is the ability to feed the node's callable into another node, meaning we can use higher-order functions like map() and reduce() very effectively. This feature is actually pretty rare in this kind of software. In other words, since nodes represent functions (or other callables), we can also feed them to other functions (nodes) that accept callables. Here's a simple demonstration of how you can use the a+b node with `functools.reduce to add multiple values together:



You can also turn functions from third-party modules into nodes as well, which means you can tap into powerful Python libraries like Pillow, matplotlib, pandas, you name it. That makes Nodezator a powerful meta application with almost unlimited potential. For instance, with just these 03 lines of code...

from numpy import save

main_callable = save

third_party_import_text = 'from numpy import save'

...you generate this node:



Bear in mind that I'm no professional Python developer, but have been programming as a hobby for a long time (Javascript, PHP and Python) and only in recent years started using Python more seriously in a self-taught approach based mostly on technical books and much practice with personal projects.

This node editor still has a long way to go, specially since the vast majority of the work is done by a single developer (me). However it's been already plenty useful since its release last year and slowly but surely it is being improved over time.

I'd like to add that node-based programming is not a silver bullet and is not better than text-based programming, nor it is inferior. They are both very important and irreplaceable approaches to programming. Their usage, either in isolation or in combination, depends on the kind of problem being tackled.

I myself use Nodezator to pre-generate 2d animation positioning data for a game on which I'm working (yet another open-source public domain project of mine that's been on pause for now: https://github.com/IndiePython/bionic-blue) and to complement my video editing pipeline by generating images that I later use in videos.

If you want to see more projects like this flourishing, specially taking into account it is open-source and dedicated to the public domain, please, consider donating to the project (even a tiny amount helps a lot) and sharing it with your colleagues/friends. I'd like to mention that this project has no paywalls nor subscriptons of any kind, just plain straightforward access to everything. Here are some useful links:

Donation options:

https://github.com/sponsors/KennedyRichard
https://patreon.com/KennedyRichard
https://indiepython.com/donate

Social networks and other channels:

https://nodezator.com (app website, work in progress)
https://indiepython.com (project website, work in progress)
https://youtube.com/@IndiePython
https://fosstodon.org/@KennedyRichard
https://twitter.com/KennedyRichard
Also my email: [email protected]


Thank you for your attention. Let me know if you have any questions, I'd love to answer them.

Kennedy Richard S. Guerra
Indie Python developer