Light Table - a new IDE concept

Post by jahewson » Fri, Apr 13, 2012, 6:33 PM UTC

timdorr wrote: post #147

splatcollision wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, but business should be product-based...

That's certainly true, but the two aren't mutually exclusive. Kickstarter will get you the funds to go out and build a cool product, but it won't tell you how to generate a model that's sustainable, teach you how to go to market, or even tell you if there's an available market at all.

Post by jodrellblank » Fri, Apr 13, 2012, 6:34 PM UTC

Dove wrote: post #87

gruseom wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Editing complex functions in a spreadsheet is an absolute nightmare Can you expand on why? Also, if you can imagine a spreadsheet that actually did a good job of this, what would it look like?

I can think of a few reasons, though they may not be the ones he has in mind. There's the fact that you're dealing with cell references rather than variable names, so all of your expressions look like ($K4 - $S$1) rather than (principal - payment). There's the fact that the IDE you're working in is trash -- rather than a text file with carefully indented parenthetical statements, it's a single line text field. Sort o…

    Dim x As Integer

    Function setx(n)
        x = n
        setx = 1
    End Function

    Function getx()
        getx = x
    End Function

Post by tbatterii » Fri, Apr 13, 2012, 6:39 PM UTC

katabatic wrote: post #143

kijin wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CPUs and buses have been abstracted away pretty successfully by now, especially if you use a high-level language. But I can't imagine that the same will happen to file systems, at least not in the next 10 years. Too many of our critical tools, like all version control systems, depend on knowing where in the file system hierarchy your stuff is stored. Even if your IDE hides that from you, you'll need to know where to…

Really? iOS has very effectively abstracted away the filesystem at a consumer level. I don't see it as much of a jump to see that occurring at the programming level, at least for application-level coding. Obviously, there will always be a need for a class of programmers who are intimately familiar with the lowest levels, but that set of programmers will always be vastly smaller than the numbers of those who code line…

Post by kevinpet » Fri, Apr 13, 2012, 6:45 PM UTC

sehugg wrote: post #41

Whenever I get the chance to use a spreadsheet, I really enjoy it. I find it really satisfying to set up cascading functions and see them update in real-time. I'd like to see that experience translated to general programming. I'd like to update code and see the unit tests update automatically, and an understandable representation of the objects being manipulated.

Post by tree_of_item » Fri, Apr 13, 2012, 6:47 PM UTC

Mad_Dud wrote: post #153

agentultra wrote: post #142

It looks a lot like what I already do with Emacs. Is Light Table also programmable in the language it's written in? I find extensibility and compose-ability far more important in an editor than any single feature alone. Cool demo. I like the idea of alternate real-time visualizations of my code; especially in large and unfamiliar systems.

Could you name the modes, which help you accomplish live-debug and 1-click documentation effects?