David Morgan-Mar
Encyclopedia
David Morgan-Mar is a Ph.D.
graduate from the University of Sydney
, Australia
, best known online for his webcomic
s, and for creating several humorous esoteric programming language
s. He is also the author of several GURPS
roleplaying sourcebooks for Steve Jackson Games
, as well as a regular contributor to Pyramid
magazine. He works as an optical engineer at Canon.
languages while others are simple jokes, often based upon the idea of how a given group (e.g. chefs, orangutans or necromancers) would be expected to program.
It is a mark of Morgan-Mar's humor that his algorithms often reflect the practices or misconceptions of or about the computing industry, for instance 'LenPEG', an image-compression
algorithm is designed such that if it is given the standard Lenna
image it produces an output file of 1 byte, otherwise implementing a standard JPEG
, GIF
or PNG compression, therefore beating these in benchmark
tests. His intelligent sort algorithm (a parody of intelligent design
), which suggests that any sufficiently complicated list is already sorted according to the whims of a sorter
implying any further sorting is unnecessary, was referenced in the 'feedback' section of New Scientist
s issue of the 12 May 2007.
Programming Languages:
, Infinity on 30 Credits a Day, Darths & Droids, Square Root of Minus Garfield and mezzacotta.
with speech balloons added above them (although there are some strips named Me with Morgan-Mar in them as well as the fantasy and space themes) and has several (usually) distinct casts of characters (called "themes") with many different kinds of jokes and story arcs.
The comic started off with many contributions, but input tapered off during 2008. This may have been due to the introduction of Lightning Made of Owls, a new user-contributed comic on the Mezzacotta website.http://www.mezzacotta.com/owls
where Star Wars
was never created and sci-fi shows such as Star Trek
never became popular. The concepts of Star Wars are thus largely unknown to the characters, with concepts such as lightsabers' deflection abilities, midichlorians, the Gungan race and Anakin as either made up by the players themselves or hastily invented by the Game Master after the players go off his prepared plot line.
The game started out with only Ben (Obi-wan Kenobi
), Jim (Qui-Gon Jinn
), and the game master (who plays the NPCs). Later Sally, Ben's sister, joined them, initially playing Jar Jar Binks
, then a variety of minor roles, before switching to play Mace Windu
and then Yoda. Jim's friend Pete joined in Episode 46 as R2-D2
. The newest player, Annie, who is in Ben's drama class, was introduced in episode 70 and initially played Shmi, but later switched to Anakin Skywalker (and Jim switched to Padmé Amidala
). Pete and Annie are notably polar opposites: while Pete is obsessed with points and stats
, Annie is far more interested in the roleplaying aspect. The comic has so far covered all of episodes 1 and 2, and most of episode 3. Morgan-Mar and the rest of the team behind this web-comic plan to go through all six movies.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
graduate from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, best known online for his webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
s, and for creating several humorous esoteric programming language
Esoteric programming language
An esoteric programming language is a programming language designed as a test of the boundaries of computer programming language design, as a proof of concept, or as a joke...
s. He is also the author of several GURPS
GURPS
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting...
roleplaying sourcebooks for Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.-History:...
, as well as a regular contributor to Pyramid
Pyramid (magazine)
Pyramid is a gaming magazine, publishing articles primarily on role-playing games, but including board games, card games, and other sorts of games. It began life in 1993 as a print publication of Steve Jackson Games for its first 30 issues, though it has been published on the Internet since March...
magazine. He works as an optical engineer at Canon.
Esoterica
Morgan-Mar has created a number of esoteric programming languages or algorithms some of which have achieved a degree of popularity. Some of them are full Turing-completeTuring completeness
In computability theory, a system of data-manipulation rules is said to be Turing complete or computationally universal if and only if it can be used to simulate any single-taped Turing machine and thus in principle any computer. A classic example is the lambda calculus...
languages while others are simple jokes, often based upon the idea of how a given group (e.g. chefs, orangutans or necromancers) would be expected to program.
It is a mark of Morgan-Mar's humor that his algorithms often reflect the practices or misconceptions of or about the computing industry, for instance 'LenPEG', an image-compression
Image compression
The objective of image compression is to reduce irrelevance and redundancy of the image data in order to be able to store or transmit data in an efficient form.- Lossy and lossless compression :...
algorithm is designed such that if it is given the standard Lenna
Lenna
Lenna or Lena is the name given to a 512 x 512 pixel standard test image originally cropped from the centerfold of November 1972 issue of Playboy magazine. It is a picture of Lena Söderberg, a Swedish model, shot by photographer Dwight Hooker...
image it produces an output file of 1 byte, otherwise implementing a standard JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
, GIF
GIF
The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability....
or PNG compression, therefore beating these in benchmark
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and/or best practices from other industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost...
tests. His intelligent sort algorithm (a parody of intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
), which suggests that any sufficiently complicated list is already sorted according to the whims of a sorter
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
implying any further sorting is unnecessary, was referenced in the 'feedback' section of New Scientist
New Scientist
New Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
s issue of the 12 May 2007.
Programming Languages:
- BIT, which treats all data like CC (programming language)C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
treats strings. - ChefChef (programming language)Chef is an esoteric programming language designed by David Morgan-Mar. It is based on the manipulation of data values in a number of stacks; the same idea is used in assembly programming languages...
, where the programs are written to resemble recipes. - Haifu, based upon the HaikuHaiku' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
, Eastern philosophyEastern philosophyEastern philosophy includes the various philosophies of Asia, including Chinese philosophy, Iranian philosophy, Japanese philosophy, Indian philosophy and Korean philosophy...
and artistic values. - HQ9++, an extension of HQ9+ (in which every command produces one of the standard programming tasks - printing Hello World, Quines, generating the lyrics to 99 Bottles of Beer99 Bottles of Beer"99 Bottles of Beer" is a traditional song in the United States and Canada. It is popular to sing on long trips, as it has a very repetitive format which is easy to memorize, and can take a long time to sing. In particular the song is frequently sung by children on long bus trips, such as class...
and incrementing the accumulator by 1) to the object-orientedObject-oriented programmingObject-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
paradigm. - Ook!, an implementation of BrainfuckBrainfuckThe brainfuck programming language is an esoteric programming language noted for its extreme minimalism. It is a Turing tarpit, designed to challenge and amuse programmers, and is not suitable for practical use...
designed for orangutanOrangutanOrangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...
s (see The Librarian (Discworld)). - PietPiet (programming language)Piet is an esoteric programming language designed by David Morgan-Mar, whose programs are bitmaps that look like abstract art. The compilation is guided by a "pointer" that moves around the image, from one continuous coloured region to the next...
, a graphics based design where the programs are works of modern artModern artModern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of... - Whenever, a language which considers its lines of code to be to-do lists, and will arbitrarily choose which task to process next.
- ZOMBIE, designed for evil necromancersNecromancyNecromancy is a claimed form of magic that involves communication with the deceased, either by summoning their spirit in the form of an apparition or raising them bodily, for the purpose of divination, imparting the ability to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge...
.
Comics
Morgan-Mar is known for his webcomics: Irregular Webcomic!Irregular Webcomic!
Irregular Webcomic! is a webcomic created by David Morgan-Mar, an Australian physicist. The comic is illustrated photographically, primarily with Lego figures, although a few of the story arcs use role playing game miniatures. The comic debuted on 31 December 2002 and ended on 29 October 2011,...
, Infinity on 30 Credits a Day, Darths & Droids, Square Root of Minus Garfield and mezzacotta.
Irregular Webcomic!
Established at the end of 2002, Irregular Webcomic! is a photo-comic that consists mostly of pictures of LegoLego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
with speech balloons added above them (although there are some strips named Me with Morgan-Mar in them as well as the fantasy and space themes) and has several (usually) distinct casts of characters (called "themes") with many different kinds of jokes and story arcs.
Infinity on 30 Credits a Day
Infinity on 30 Credits a Day is an idea that was developed by David Morgan-Mar in response to a poll he conducted, asking the fans of Irregular Webcomic! whether they would create a webcomic, given the ability to do so. It is a webcomic created entirely through collaboration between the 500 or so fans that signed up to help. Essentially, the creation of each comic is a collaborative effort by several people, chosen for their skills.The comic started off with many contributions, but input tapered off during 2008. This may have been due to the introduction of Lightning Made of Owls, a new user-contributed comic on the Mezzacotta website.http://www.mezzacotta.com/owls
Darths & Droids
Inspired by DM of the Rings, Darths & Droids takes place in a universeUniverse
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
where Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
was never created and sci-fi shows such as Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
never became popular. The concepts of Star Wars are thus largely unknown to the characters, with concepts such as lightsabers' deflection abilities, midichlorians, the Gungan race and Anakin as either made up by the players themselves or hastily invented by the Game Master after the players go off his prepared plot line.
The game started out with only Ben (Obi-wan Kenobi
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Obi-Wan Kenobi is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is one of several primary characters in the Star Wars series. Along with Darth Vader, R2-D2, and C-3PO, he is one of the few major characters to appear in all six Star Wars films...
), Jim (Qui-Gon Jinn
Qui-Gon Jinn
Qui-Gon Jinn is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, and a main protagonist of the 1999 film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, portrayed by Liam Neeson. He also appears in the Star Wars Expanded Universe of comic books, video games, and novels...
), and the game master (who plays the NPCs). Later Sally, Ben's sister, joined them, initially playing Jar Jar Binks
Jar Jar Binks
Jar Jar Binks is a fictional character from the Star Wars Saga , and the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. His primary role was to provide comic relief, but many reacted negatively to his character...
, then a variety of minor roles, before switching to play Mace Windu
Mace Windu
Mace Windu is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, most famously portrayed by actor Samuel L. Jackson in the prequel films. However, Windu has also been voiced by other actors in assorted video game and animated projects....
and then Yoda. Jim's friend Pete joined in Episode 46 as R2-D2
R2-D2
R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
. The newest player, Annie, who is in Ben's drama class, was introduced in episode 70 and initially played Shmi, but later switched to Anakin Skywalker (and Jim switched to Padmé Amidala
Padmé Amidala
Padmé Amidala is a fictional character in the Star Wars science fiction franchise. She first appeared on film in the 1999 feature film, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, as the young queen of the planet Naboo. In subsequent prequel trilogy films, Padmé represents Naboo in the Galactic Senate...
). Pete and Annie are notably polar opposites: while Pete is obsessed with points and stats
Munchkin (role-playing games)
In gaming, a Munchkin is a player who plays what is intended to be a non-competitive game in an aggressively competitive manner...
, Annie is far more interested in the roleplaying aspect. The comic has so far covered all of episodes 1 and 2, and most of episode 3. Morgan-Mar and the rest of the team behind this web-comic plan to go through all six movies.