I agree that, for better or worse, we'll be using text-based formats for a while. I don't think the hypothetical alternative representation I mentioned is goin

I agree that, for better or worse, we'll be using text-based formats for a while. I don't think the hypothetical alternative representation I mentioned is going to happen off the back of a single grad school research project, or anything even close to that scale. It's more like something that's going to take the R&D lab of an industry heavweight a decade to develop and refine and then launch into widespread industrial usage with the backing of at least one major platform developer when it's ready for prime time. Sadly, as long as text-based (or, perhaps more accurately, line-based) programming languages are good enough to produce acceptable software, there isn't a truly compelling motivation to develop a completely new model. I wonder whether increasing pressure on the software industry to provide quality and security as a backlash against the current cheap-and-nasty trend will drive us toward more radical programming models first, and perhaps get us close enough to make the quantum leap to an entirely new kind of representation from there.