Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Light Table - a new IDE concept

chris-granger.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 315 posts

Re: Light Table - a new IDE concept

#191

Post by groby_b »

Hardly a "new" concept. MS Research did something akin to his different functions on one light table. Displaying HTML in the REPL is (I believe) a Factor thing, amongst others. Documentation everywhere is supported by any decent IDE these days.(Except it's usually a hover tip, not a separate window). Code is not a file is the subject of entire Internet rants.

Don't get me wrong, this is cool when you tie it together. But it's hardly new. I'm inclined to say it would benefit from research into what others have done, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you really need to be unencumbered by old ideas to push this again, and maybe succeed this time.

Re: Light Table - a new IDE concept

#193

Post by scottjad »

stcredzero wrote: post #29

- Smallest unit of code is the function. - Able to get instant feedback on code changes. - Multiple editors with just one function in it. Show code in an "area of concern" not just in a file. - The coding environment can show also results, app windows, graphics, other tools. - Can save the configuration of the above. Smalltalkers have been doing this in commercial projects since the 80's. If only we could have commun…

In the Table view it might be nice to color the cards based on their namespace like Whisker browser:

http://www.maartensz.org/computing/squeak/Helps/Programming/...

Re: Light Table - a new IDE concept

#194

Post by nprincigalli »

gfodor wrote: post #74
jessep wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not name names? seems like it could be informative.

Not in this thread. This is Light Table's moment to shine, don't want to clog it up with such a derail.

Not old enough to have lived through what you said, but old enough to have noticed the ripples of "what could have been". Plan9. Lisp Machines. etc. So I'm also looking forward to your much-needed show-and-tell post!

Re: Light Table - a new IDE concept

#196

Post by cs702 »

Light Table looks brilliant and clearly deserves much success... but I can't help but wonder if it will ever catch on as much as I'd hope, because the alternative -- using plain-text files -- is (IMO) a canonical example of the simple-to-implement, New-Jersey-style, worse-is-better approach.

As comments elsewhere in this thread (e.g., see stcredzero's and gfodor's comments) detail, the ideas behind Light Table have been around for decades, yet somehow failed to catch on in prior incarnations. Why?

Some here say it's because earlier proponents of these ideas were just too early, meaning that hardware and infrastructure weren't sufficiently powerful at the time. Others here say that early proponents and their implementations were too ideological and not pragmatic enough. Maybe.

My gut tells me earlier incarnations lost out in the marketplace because MIT/Stanford-style approaches tend to lose out to simple-to-implement, New Jersey-style, 'worse-is-better' approaches in the long run. What prevents Light Table from suffering a similar fate?

I hope I'm wrong.

Re: Light Table - a new IDE concept

#197

Post by HerroRygar »

This looks fantastic! It also has the side effect of making me want to get back in to learning Clojure. The idea of the file not being the fundamental unit of code is especially intriguing, but hard to wrap my brain around - that's such a low-level, base assumption that it's difficult to picture truly challenging that.

What are some examples of other paradigm-shifting (argh, buzzword) ideas in the world of software development? Deviations from the norm often become the new norm, and I'm too young and inexperienced (I've only been out of college for 10 months) to remember the "old way" of things.

Re: Light Table - a new IDE concept

#200

Post by chc »

davidcann wrote: post #182
chc wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, product-focused, maybe. Being completely based on a single, unproven product is not really a great way to run a business, at least from Y Combinator's viewpoint.

Isn't that exactly what Y Combinator companies do? They create single, focused, unproven products and try to "prove" them.

YC companies very often end up with completely different products than they start out with. This almost never happens with Kickstarters, because those are actually project-based.
Post reply on HN