User:V 0 1 D/Draft:VNotation

V 0 1 D's Notation System, also called VNotation or VNS is an experimental alternative to the standard notation system being created by V 0 1 D.

This page is an overview of the included features and some demonstrations. It is not a tutorial designed to teach you how to write VNS.

Issues with the existing system

The existing system has two major flaws that cause a lot of headaches, arguments and tedium:

1. It is inflexible, and does not make good use of formatting or space as it is derived from patches to an old and incomplete system that was not designed to be extended. This makes things difficult to read and understand, with an entire book being required to understand the system in its entirety.
2. It suffers numerous ambiguities and inconsistencies, such as collisions between modifiers where two different modifiers can be applied separately to a trick and create the same result. Another example is needing to remember which direction is the "Normal" direction of each trick, as it could imply either a clockwise or anticlockwise path depending on the trick. These ambiguities have led to countless arguments in the past.

Goals

• To be extensible, flexible and elegant to read
• Remove ambiguity as much as possible
• Improve consistency between trick names and trick definitions
• To provide both a highly detailed variant as well as an informal, lower-detail variant for easy discussion.

Element Tracks

VNS uses individual 'element track' lines running parallel to each-other to notate various occurrences. For instance, a track can be used to notate what orientation the hand is in. Usefully, the state of a track is considered static unless a new value is placed onto the track, removing the need to notate directions or hand positions unless they are changed.

Whitespace

As tracks run parallel to eachother, elements on a track must be lined up through the use of whitespace. Consider the formal VNS notation of what is informally PU Twisted Sonic 23-12 -> PD Inverse Twisted Sonic Reverse 12-23:

HO: PU                                 - PD
TO: Charge(.5) - Pass.CCW - Charge(.5) - Charge(.5) - Pass.CCW - Charge(.5) - End
SL: 23                    - 12                                 - 23
CH: CW        

Blocks

It is obvious from the examples above that the track can quickly run out of length on the screen when notating, and it tends to be very verbose, although clean. This is where blocks come in, which either explicitly or inexplicitly refer to a breakdown with the given name. Tricks outside of fundamentals can be notated in a block, and then used by name.

Explicit Blocks

An explicit block is a notation block where the actual breakdown of the trick exists in VNS already. For example here is the block of a Twisted Sonic

#Our actual combo
TO: Twisted Sonic(34, 23) - Twisted Sonic(23, 12)

#Twisted Sonic block referenced
Twisted Sonic = (_SL1, _SL2)[
  TO: Charge(.5) - Pass.DIR - Charge(.5)
  SL: _SL1                  - _SL2
  CH: CHG
].{DIR, CHG(CW)}

Implied Blocks

More usefully, an implied block refers to a block that is referenced but not formally notated. This allows the easy conversion of existing notation into VNS with the ability to expand on the detail by writing explicit blocks later. An implicit block can be formally referred to by specifying what values it takes in and uses, but not specifying how they are implemented. For instance:

TO: Hai Tua(T1, 1x)

Hai Tua = (_SL1, _CNT)[
  #IMPLIED
].{}

Standardized directions

In VNS directions are all standardized between tricks. A trick described as moving in a direction in VNS can link directly into another trick moving in that same direction without a direction change.

Pen pathing

Pathing is the direction the pen travels along a path around or between fingers and other body parts. The path can be drawn out by tracing the motion of the pen's center of gravity as it moves. Paths are considered only on fundamental tricks that follow a single direction, not on hybrids, linkages or combos. This is for simplification purposes.

For example, consider an around linkage variation without slots or spins in traditional notation linked into a traditional 'Backaround':

(PS) Rev IndexAround ~ FL Seasick -> (PD) BackAround

However, in formal VNS (without slots or spins) it would be written as:

HO: PU                     - PD
TO: Around(1).CW - Slide.I - Around(1).CW
CH: CCW
PU: 12                     - 1

It is possible to use traditional notation terms in VNS using implied or explicit blocks, but it is highly recommended for a trick block to keep standardized directions where possible.

Charges

Marked by the "CH:" line, charges are considered relative to gravity, as though looking down from the sky to the ground. In traditional notation, Palm up/Palm Side Charge Normal is a "CH: CW" charge, while Palm Down Charge Normal is a "CH: CCW" charge. The benefit of writing it this way is that a trick can always be assumed to link easily without a counter or otherwise into another trick unless a change in charge is written.

Converting to VNS

VNS accepts implied blocks, blocks that have not been explicitly defined in the current notation or at all. This can be used to put traditional notation from a variety of sources into place with minimal transformation effort, allowing for a combination of multiple notation systems and VNS. These blocks can later be filled in or linked to a block that has a definition for a standardized VNS block.