This project was started out of frustration with Radiance and its lack of usability with simpler setups. Radiance was intended for 2-D grid setups, but it doesn't do so well with strip based setups for two reasons.
- Strips could only take advantage of a small number of its built-in effects
- The Lux protocol that Lux uses as its primary backend is massive overkill for relatively uncomplicated controller setups.
This led me to create a new project targeted at strip-based lighting setups. The two big differences in functionality are that it has a minimalist protocol that simplifies the client-controller code and that its effects are targeted to look best on LED strips rather than screen-style 2-D grids.
Julia is a high-performance, high-level language. It is mostly aimed at the likes of MATLAB, but it also is a distinctly decent general purpose programming language. The killer feature here is that it has libraries for PortAudio and FFT's, and the language itself is natively very fast. Also, its type system is magical.