randomart

Generates images from strings using a randomly grown expression tree.

Crates

randomart-core

Common types and algorithms shared across the whole project:

• Node: the AST
• Grammar: probabilistic tree generation
• PixelBuffer: flat RGB image buffer
• Statistics: tree analysis
• Rng: seeded random number generation

randomart-{backend}

Execution backends. Each one does exactly one thing: take an AST and return a PixelBuffer.

• metal: compiles the AST to Metal Shading Language and runs it on the GPU
• cranelift-jit: JIT-compiles the AST to native code via Cranelift
• closure-tree: interprets the AST as a tree of Rust closures
• llvm-aot: Uses the Rust build system to generate the AST as Rust native code, compiles, and runs it.

The CPU backends use the CORE-MATH project for their math implementations of functions not guaranteed by IEEE 754 to be correctly rounded. The Metal backend currently does not support this because it doesn't have native support of f64. The Metal output may not be bit-identical to the CPU output.

randomart-cli

Owns all I/O. Parses CLI arguments, invokes a backend, and saves the resulting PixelBuffer as a PNG. Optionally writes the formula as JSON.

Usage

Build a binary for the backend you want:

cargo build --release --bin randomart-metal
cargo build --release --bin randomart-cranelift
cargo build --release --bin randomart-closure-tree

Generate an image from a string seed:

./randomart-metal generate "hello world" 10

depth controls how deep the expression tree is allowed to grow. Higher depth means more complex images.

Save the formula as JSON alongside the image:

./randomart-metal generate "hello world" 10 --save-json

This writes a .json file next to the PNG. You can then re-render from it later:

./randomart-metal read formula.json

Other options for generate:

--width <WIDTH>    Image width in pixels  [default: 512]
--height <HEIGHT>  Image height in pixels [default: 512]
--out <OUT>        Output filename stem   [default: the input string]

Output is always written to the current working directory. Pass --help to any binary or subcommand for full usage.