Light Table - a new IDE concept

Post by spitfire » Fri, Apr 13, 2012, 6:49 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…

Post by hybrid11 » Fri, Apr 13, 2012, 6:52 PM UTC

Post by nkwiatek » Fri, Apr 13, 2012, 6:56 PM UTC

kevinpet wrote: post #158

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.

"I'd like to update code and see the unit tests update automatically" I think you have that a bit backwards there. I want to write the tests and have my code automatically update to make them pass.

    /**
     * Auto-generated, do not edit!
     */
    function add(x, y) { 
      /* test 1 */
      if (x == 2 && y == 2) { 
         return 4;
      }
      /* test 2 */
      if (x == 1 && y == -1) { 
         return 0;
      }
    }

Post by peteforde » Fri, Apr 13, 2012, 7:00 PM UTC

tbatterii wrote: post #95

kijin wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We might not want the hassle of dealing with files and folders all the time, but I sometimes worry that a new generation of "programmers" will emerge who have no understanding of how the underlying filesystem works.

I sometimes worry that a new generation of "programmers" will emerge who have no understanding of how the underlying anything works. For as useful as sites like stackoverflow are for sharing knowledge, it is potentially encouraging a generation of copy/paste coders who's job it is to find and glue snippets together until they get the desired outcome. Maybe I'm getting old, but I'm starting think some knowledge needs…

Post by peteforde » Fri, Apr 13, 2012, 7:04 PM UTC