No result yet.
← Return to the first lesson · Full experiments: compare inputs, edit instructions and reconstruct programs.
Living Thoughts.
A Quineling is a small program you can see. It follows explicit instructions, shows the result, and gives each step a place in an animated body.
Start with a thought: “Add these water readings.” Run the calculation, then find each step inside the creature.
A thought, made explicit.
A thought names a task you want to do. A program writes out the steps a computer follows. Here, one list of water readings feeds two calculations: add the readings, and count them. Their results meet in a report.
Readings of 1.5, 2 and 0.5 liters give a total of 4 liters and a count of three. Changing them to 2, 3 and 4 gives 9 liters. The instructions stay the same.
readings → add them → total ┐
→ count them → count ┴→ reportThe connections between these steps help choose the body’s mathematical construction. Every step is assigned a region you can select and inspect.
- Input
- A value you supply for a calculation. Here it is a list of water readings in liters.
- Operation
- One defined step, such as adding the numbers. Operations use values from earlier steps.
- Interpreter
- The software that carries out the instructions when you press Run.
- Body
- The visible mathematical form. Motion changes its pose; a recorded run supplies its value labels.
Add the water readings.
Choose a task and try a change. Run both inputs, then select an operation to see what it calculated and where it appears in the body.
Edit the supplied values
Replay opens the saved result. Calculate both sets calculates both inputs again.
Choose a change, then run both snapshots.
No result yet.
The program’s body
Each operation owns a region of the body. Select an operation below to highlight its region and inspect its inputs.
Drag from the beginning to the end of one gesture to inspect a still pose. Pause stops the animation; Calculate runs the task.
Color identifies an operation’s role. Gold labels show recorded values; lines connect the selected operation to its inputs. Motion changes the pose.
Technical run details
No comparison yet.
Changed node values—
Source identityNot run
Anatomy change from inputs—
Interpreter requests0
Changed values count differences between the two runs. Anatomy change measures corresponding body points at a fixed pose. Input changes keep the same body; editing the program creates a new source. Interpreter requests count attempts to run a task.
Follow the calculation
Select an operation to see its inputs and the part of the body it owns.
Run an example to inspect node values.
Full run record and source identity
Change the rule. Change the body.
These readings add up to seven liters. Add a five-liter limit and the result becomes five. The new operation gets its own region in the body.
Sum every reading
Not built.
Cap the total at five liters
Not built.
Both portraits are shown in the same pose.
Inspect the added operation and source differences
Limit retry attempts
The supplied outcomes are retry, retry, then success. One attempt stops at the first retry. Four attempts reach success on the third. Set a limit and compare.
Not evaluated.
Skip food with no restoration
Add a rule that requires food to restore a positive amount. Compare the two programs with an item that restores zero.
Not evaluated.
Make a related body.
Keep the water calculation and inherit body traits from another program. Choose a variation, then compare the parent and child. This recipe changes their appearance while preserving the task.
A child is a new program constructed from parents. Here its calculation stays the same. The variation number chooses a repeatable appearance; it is not a generation count or score.
Parent water program
Body-only child
Not constructed.
Child source and results
Make a copy.
A quine emits its own complete source. Each Quineling has a constructor that does this, so a new instance can be built from the source it produces.
The same source can be stored as wave coefficients or exact RGB values. These data records contain the complete program; a picture of the creature does not.
Recover three generations to build and run successive copies with the same inputs. Each copy is checked against the original source and result.
Source is the complete text needed to rebuild the program and its body. A constructor is the part that produces this text. Checking a copy of the source leaves the task unrun.
Run a matching comparison first to compare the recovered calculations.
Copy details
Complete body and task source
The visual capsule contains the unchanged QDL 1 task source and its newly authored mathematical body. The capsule constructor copies both; task execution uses the retained interpreter.
Write the steps.
Start with a task: “Find a route around the closed road.” Express it in QDL as typed operations and their connections. The interpreter reads the supplied observations, runs each operation when its inputs are ready, and records the result.
QDL makes the task explicit: what it observes, what it computes and what action it proposes. You can inspect the program and every recorded step.
Give the steps a body.
The source also describes an anatomy made from mathematical curves. Operations are assigned regions, colors group their roles, and connections show how values flow. The renderer animates this anatomy; the interpreter runs the task when you press Run.
Compose two programs in the Ranch workshop →
Build your own.
Write a typed task in the workspace, or connect an agent through the TypeScript SDK, MCP or A2A. In the Ranch, combine compatible programs and explore inherited bodies.