Subtextual notation
We’re still writing code as if on a teletype, and still feeding it to a black-box compiler, and getting magic out. There must be a more visual approach, that’s faster to code in than ascii, more succinct, giving you a better overview, an IDE that talks to you. I’ve been hunting for a visual programming language for a long time, as you probably know. Heck, I even wrote one (no, that’s not Quartz Composer).
So of course I had to back Light Table when I saw it. I can’t but feel that Chris Granger’s project is overambitious and too broad to build something general and practically useful, but it’ll be a very interesting journey.
While researching Light Table, I ran into Jonathan Edwards’ thoughts on it, “An IDE is not enough”. He’s been working on a visual programming language of his own, called Subtext. He’s chosen a very specific problem—conditionals—and extrapolated a language from that. I’m really not sold on his visual representation, nor the incredibly mouse and context menu-heavy interface, but I really like the idea and the thoughts behind it. While waiting for the revolution, give your brain something to chew on with the embedded video below the quote.
Much of the design of our programming languages is an artifact of the linear nature of text.