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Ask HN: Why is programming editing text?

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Ask HN: Why is programming editing text?

#1

Post by thepete2 »

What you care about as a programmer is what your code does, right? Basically whatever the compiler has after lexical analysis (except for comments maybe).

So why do we bother with all that coding style stuff if we could make an IDE that edits the program itself instead of text? (I get that text is a universal format, but that doesn't mean we have to edit it directly.)

Instead of editing text you could choose to "declare a function", "rename this identifier" or "call function x with y and z arguments" and then save it with some coding style.

Is there such an IDE? I know what I'm describing is pretty much visual programming, but I mean for "text" languages.

Re: Ask HN: Why is programming editing text?

#3

Post by thepete2 »

Loic35 wrote: post #2

Hi! Take a look at NodeRed... Still some code behind the scene at lowest layer but the visual display of algo is a starting point.

I've heard of it, but it generates JSON, doesn't it? What I mean is something like an editor/ide for C or Python or something.

Re: Ask HN: Why is programming editing text?

#4

Post by mooreds »

Do you mean an ide that you navigate around (mouse or keyboard) to create programming language constructs that then is turned into either text or a binary?

If so, my big question is what interface will be more efficient than text entry?

If not than perhaps I misunderstood your question.

Re: Ask HN: Why is programming editing text?

#5

Post by mooreds »

mooreds wrote: post #4

Do you mean an ide that you navigate around (mouse or keyboard) to create programming language constructs that then is turned into either text or a binary? If so, my big question is what interface will be more efficient than text entry? If not than perhaps I misunderstood your question.

You might be looking for something like blockly:

https://developers.google.com/blockly/guides/overview

Re: Ask HN: Why is programming editing text?

#6

Post by mehrdadn »

Previous related discussions that may contain insights:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6964369

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9495836

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10099611

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13578256

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13773813

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14278605

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14609215

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15160030

Re: Ask HN: Why is programming editing text?

#7

Post by cjallen88 »

thepete2 wrote: post #3
Loic35 wrote: post #2

Hi! Take a look at NodeRed... Still some code behind the scene at lowest layer but the visual display of algo is a starting point.

I've heard of it, but it generates JSON, doesn't it? What I mean is something like an editor/ide for C or Python or something.

Well sure, but that's just the storage format isn't it? Is that important if you never interact with it?

Re: Ask HN: Why is programming editing text?

#9

Post by siriniok »

Yes, such tools exist, and they are really hard to use usually. It's hard to copy, hard to refactor, hard to compose, etc., and clicking by mouse is really slow.

I don't say that a good UX couldn't exist for such thing, but we already have that good UX in a form of text. Really. Think of it.

Re: Ask HN: Why is programming editing text?

#10

Post by butlersean »

There are lots of "visual programming languages" with a list on wikipedia and recently posted here on HN.

The operations you list seem to be related to the kinds of things yo might do when 'refactoring' though. Have you looked into the kinds of operations happening there. "Pull Up", "Extract Method" etc

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