3 ms·

This is what the the COLA papers talk about as you're aware, a REPL where you can modify, recompile and use the environment dynamically. Smalltalk is also simil

This is what the the COLA papers talk about as you're aware, a REPL where you can modify, recompile and use the environment dynamically. Smalltalk is also similar in this regard, with a nicer UX. One of the reasons why this style has not taken off (image-based) is that its very easy to lose track of changes while developing - there's no formal iteration boundary. This guy https://github.com/attila-lendvai/maru https://github.com/attila-lendvai/maru Has been experimenting with git branches for this. https://github.com/crcx/retroforth/blob/master/doc/RETRO-Book.md#metacompilation-and-assembly https://github.com/crcx/retroforth/blob/master/doc/RETRO-Boo... talks about this issue, and the Retroforth author's attempt to define more clean boundaries.

sph 3y ago
The hypothesis I want to test is that image/live development has a much higher ceiling of productivity than what we're used to, we just haven't tried hard enough. The failure of Smalltalk are known and easily found, my issue with it is that we've abandoned research on this "fancy and new" aspect from the 80s because of its failures and returned to the mainframe style of the 60s, which is still the model today. It is incredible how many advanced ideas are starting to pop in our languages today, that were active areas of research in the 50+ years ago. Some papers from that era still read like science fiction today. So there is this unknown field of research that can only be explored with the most malleable of environments, where you can switch between Self-like prototyping and Smalltalk-like rigid class model at runtime. Or turn it into an imperative language, why not. That is the beauty of COLA as a research ground to me. That said, thanks for the reading list and food for thought :)

3 ms·

This is what the the COLA papers talk about as you're aware, a REPL where you can modify, recompile and use the environment dynamically. Smalltalk is also simil

by alexisread 3y ago

sph 3y ago
The hypothesis I want to test is that image/live development has a much higher ceiling of productivity than what we're used to, we just haven't tried hard enough. The failure of Smalltalk are known and easily found, my issue with it is that we've abandoned research on this "fancy and new" aspect from the 80s because of its failures and returned to the mainframe style of the 60s, which is still the model today. It is incredible how many advanced ideas are starting to pop in our languages today, that were active areas of research in the 50+ years ago. Some papers from that era still read like science fiction today. So there is this unknown field of research that can only be explored with the most malleable of environments, where you can switch between Self-like prototyping and Smalltalk-like rigid class model at runtime. Or turn it into an imperative language, why not. That is the beauty of COLA as a research ground to me. That said, thanks for the reading list and food for thought :)