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Luna 1.0 Beta is out

luna-lang.org

61–70 of 171 posts

Re: Luna 1.0 Beta is out

#62
post #11

Cool looking project. Unfortunately my browser (Firefox) is really struggling with scrolling on the overview page... It keeps getting stuck while scrolling past the "powerful engine. Limitless" block of text.

Interesting, we will investigate it ASAP. In the meantime, please try Chrome instead. We'll try to fix it soon. I'm really sorry for the incontinence!

Testing on firefox on android would be appreciated too, because right now the website is unusable :(

Re: Luna 1.0 Beta is out

#63
post #2

Hi, I'm one of Luna founders, I'll be happy to answer any questions! :)

Equivalent text and graph representation is the killer feature.

I previously looked at stuff like https://flowhub.io/ide/ which is a dataflow language spec and editor. Specifically the js version https://noflojs.org/example/ for compiling graphs into js for some canvas image pipeline work.

Each component has an underlying text representation that you can edit like you guys. But that representation isn't code. It's just the configuration of the node.

This isn't what I want! I want to architect the dataflow on a whiteboard, code it normally (a new language is okay), and then have it visualize the same dataflow for debugging (with help grouping/organizing if needed). Every programmer already does this in their head but without the visual aid.

(Focusing too much on the graphical representation is a mistake. There's only a handful of granularities that are worth whiteboard diagramming and people definitely don't want to code with a mouse dragging and zooming. But having the diagram at specific architectural level when you do need it is invaluable)

I haven't tried your product out yet so I don't know if you guys got it right, but at the very least you guys recognize the importance of "dual syntax representation" as a selling point!

Re: Luna 1.0 Beta is out

#64
post #46
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@bsaul, video tutorials are a very interesting idea. In the first release, however, we have incorporated few toy-projects and interactive tutorial, which guides you step by step inside the product. Do you think video tutorials are better to understand / follow than examples or interactive tutorials ?

I would definitely prefer video tutorials, they would be massively helpful for me to learn. By the way, if anyone wants to make a youtube channel about luna, I'd subscribe, if anyone wants to make a udemy video course - I'd buy it =)

@rayalez thank you for your feedback! It is very interesting for me personally. I would not have thought that video tutorials could be better than interactive ones, but it is probably because of my strong personal preferences towards examples / interactive tutorials. On our short roadmap I see new demo scenes only, but we will talk internally about video tutorials tomorrow. If you think you would like to help us with them – by providing ideas or just helping us create them, we would be more than interested in collaborating with you! :)

Re: Luna 1.0 Beta is out

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Investors: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/nodelab-2

Oh, ok. But pardon the ignorance, but how do the investors make a return on their investment, freemium language and premium tools?

Probably the editor will have domain-specific add-ons and libraries developed and supported by the company. They can also provide workshops and certifications if the language gets more popular.

Re: Luna 1.0 Beta is out

#66
post #2

Hi, I'm one of Luna founders, I'll be happy to answer any questions! :)

I love the concept of Luna and think the project itself was great,

However I feel you guys have chosen a poor approach to distributing it.

① I feel it would have been far better to implement the studio as an Atom plugin rather than a fork of Atom

② I feel having the compiler only available bundled into the studio is a mistake, there should be a pure CLI interface with minimal external dependencies so that people can use Luna in their existing CI pipelines

Re: Luna 1.0 Beta is out

#67
post #2

Hi, I'm one of Luna founders, I'll be happy to answer any questions! :)

Equivalent text and graph representation is the killer feature. I previously looked at stuff like https://flowhub.io/ide/ which is a dataflow language spec and editor. Specifically the js version https://noflojs.org/example/ for compiling graphs into js for some canvas image pipeline work. Each component has an underlying text representation that you can edit like you guys. But that representation isn't code. It's ju…

people definitely don't want to code with a mouse dragging and zooming

Actually that is exactly what I want which is why I signed up for the Luna beta months ago. We have had flow based programming for a while in the synth and robotics communities and nesting diagrams within each other is the normal thing. For many tasks you can produce elaborate working interactive UIs without ever writing code. My favorite software allowed adding code in C and assembler, though then they shifted focus towards the robotics control market and reoriented it around Ruby.

There are two big advantages in working primarily at the graphic level: you can trace control flows visually and you don't have to know all the libraries and syntax. Instead you can select from a palette and find out what they do by using them, and it should be the computer's job to worry about syntax anyway.

Re: Luna 1.0 Beta is out

#69
post #35

Be aware, before downloading: This application will not run without providing an e-mail address. It also forces data collection. I will not use such software.

@moondoge, if you don't want to provide your mail, just write anything in this field, we do NOT validate it in any way. However, we would be very thankful if you provide your real mail address, so we can track how Luna is used and improve the experience. Every data we collect is described here: http://www.luna-lang.org/alpha-data.html . We try to collect only insensitive data, that tell us how Luna is used and how we…

Software that collects and sends back any form of information is a big no-no unless it's opt-in. It's not acceptable when vscode does it. It's not acceptable when .net-core does it. It isn't acceptable when Luna does it.

If you want your users to help you learn how Luna is used and preforms in real environments, you ask for them for feedback rather than forcefully extract it.

Having telemetry enabled by default (or much worse, being mandatory) is disrespectful. It's also a fairly good indicator of what you think of your users.

Re: Luna 1.0 Beta is out

#70
This looks very cool.

It would be interesting if we can construct software with a UI like this but based on an SSA IR or downright CPU instructions instead of another high-level language.

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