I agree with the parent. The big advantage of what he's suggesting is code objects exist as first class objects. They don't have to creased by parsing a text fi

I agree with the parent. The big advantage of what he's suggesting is code objects exist as first class objects. They don't have to creased by parsing a text file. Which means the editor can directly manipulate them. If you've ever used CAD programs especially Schematic Capture and PCB Layout programs you'll get the idea. Everything displayed on the screen is an object in a database. Instead of a parser blindly parsing a text file and coming across a struct definition, a struct is object created by the programmer. Which means you can have hard links between the objects that make up the program. And those can be directly manipulated with manually or programmatically. The big advantage comes from maintenance and refactoring. Change the name of a field? Happens in exactly one place in the program. So instead of a diff with 1537 files changes you have 'renamed struct fobar to struct foobar'. Change a comment? Well it's just a changed comment.