3 ms·

My first thought was "this is pretty cool!" but wondering who actually needs it. I then had the realization that this is, in fact, a very different way of data

My first thought was "this is pretty cool!" but wondering who actually needs it. I then had the realization that this is, in fact, a very different way of data expression. It would force you to think not only about what you are saying, but how you are saying it and how to demonstrate the ideas within the text of the document itself and not simply say "Refer to fig 1.1". This could truly present a new way of displaying data on the web. It could bridge the gap between complex animations and simple text. 99.9% of all sites I see that contain some cool animation are completely independent of the content surrounding them. Having the content and interactions married together in a simple way is really something I've not seen too often. Kudos.

tryitnow 15y ago
Yes, thanks for putting your thoughts into words. When I first saw this I just "felt" it was pretty cool, but couldn't really explain why. As a numbers geek one of my pet peeves is that people all too rarely play out different scenarios to help the reader gain an understanding of the underlying model/data/relationships/etc. Now some sites do this well (e.g. OKCupid's blog), but there is still a disconnect between text and data display. The reader has to play with the graph itself and that does create a bit of a cognitive fracture that I think subtly inhibits a better understanding.
dantheman 15y ago
So must of us are quite familiar with reactive programming, we just don't realize it. Anytime you've ever made an excel spreadsheet, with functions, you've done reactive programming. Seeing that the spreadsheet is one of the few areas where nonprogammers actually program, I'm hoping that as we better understand reactive programming we'll be able to expose it's power to general users. For more information on functional reactive programming, I'd recommend looking at FlapJax and FatherTime

tryitnow 15y ago

Yes, thanks for putting your thoughts into words. When I first saw this I just "felt" it was pretty cool, but couldn't really explain why. As a numbers geek one of my pet peeves is that people all too rarely play out different scenarios to help the reader gain an understanding of the underlying model/data/relationships/etc. Now some sites do this well (e.g. OKCupid's blog), but there is still a disconnect between text and data display. The reader has to play with the graph itself and that does create a bit of a cognitive fracture that I think subtly inhibits a better understanding.

dantheman 15y ago

So must of us are quite familiar with reactive programming, we just don't realize it. Anytime you've ever made an excel spreadsheet, with functions, you've done reactive programming. Seeing that the spreadsheet is one of the few areas where nonprogammers actually program, I'm hoping that as we better understand reactive programming we'll be able to expose it's power to general users. For more information on functional reactive programming, I'd recommend looking at FlapJax and FatherTime