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Good luck trying to create something more powerful and versatile than text to create programs. Text is a seemingly basic, simple and even crude format. Ancient

Good luck trying to create something more powerful and versatile than text to create programs. Text is a seemingly basic, simple and even crude format. Ancient, outdated even? My opinion is that our perception about the simplicity of text is related to Moravec's Paradox, and is an illusion. Reading and writing text is something we take for granted, but this is a skill we all have to painfully learn at a young age, and we're so good at it that it seems transparent. Text is very abstract, the fact that we, humans, are trained to easily parse and decipher it is the reason why it is so powerful for us. I don't see any replacement in the foreseeable future.

spartanatreyu 4y ago
I think you would be very interested in the experiments and results shown here: https://dion.systems/blog_0001_hms2020.html https://dion.systems/blog_0001_hms2020.html Dion Systems were working on changing the format of text to an AST format, that can be represented in different forms of text as needed, and the changes and implications it creates for developers. I think I heard that these developers are now working for Epic on a new programming system replacing the node-based blueprint programming system (think Scratch) for UE5 (probably using an ast based programming system that can be viewed in different text/node forms).
- stephc_int13 4y ago
  Well, I've seen this before, and I think this is misguided. I wish them good luck with their effort.
quickthrower2 4y ago
This is true. Especially for programming where you can be asked to do anything at all that is computable. If you massively limit the scope then Excel is a fine interface. Try making blogging software in Excel though. Do lawyers have want to move away from text and to something better? No. But for simple rules you can do no wordy things, like a no smoking sign or a locked door to indicate a rule. Formatting issues can be resolved by using an autoformatter. Tools can be made to visualise the code too.

spartanatreyu 4y ago

I think you would be very interested in the experiments and results shown here: https://dion.systems/blog_0001_hms2020.html https://dion.systems/blog_0001_hms2020.html Dion Systems were working on changing the format of text to an AST format, that can be represented in different forms of text as needed, and the changes and implications it creates for developers. I think I heard that these developers are now working for Epic on a new programming system replacing the node-based blueprint programming system (think Scratch) for UE5 (probably using an ast based programming system that can be viewed in different text/node forms).

stephc_int13 4y ago
Well, I've seen this before, and I think this is misguided. I wish them good luck with their effort.

quickthrower2 4y ago

This is true. Especially for programming where you can be asked to do anything at all that is computable. If you massively limit the scope then Excel is a fine interface. Try making blogging software in Excel though. Do lawyers have want to move away from text and to something better? No. But for simple rules you can do no wordy things, like a no smoking sign or a locked door to indicate a rule. Formatting issues can be resolved by using an autoformatter. Tools can be made to visualise the code too.