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Does this project take any inspiration from Light Table? Potential feature request - take the visualization beyond 2D. Really complex systems are usually an in

Does this project take any inspiration from Light Table? Potential feature request - take the visualization beyond 2D. Really complex systems are usually an intricate graph (polite way of saying ball of yarn) and just visualizing in the 2D plane doesn't seem to cut it in my experience. I would love to have something like concentric spheres of visualization - boundary services on the outer layer, core/domain services in the inner layer.

akshaysg 2y ago
A lot of people mentioned Light Table, but I didn't know about it until post-launch! It's interesting that you mention a more 3D view. We were ideating on this, but it's really hard to get right in a way that the user can understand. This is definitely part of our vision for the future though! EDIT: Deleted the bit about my speculation regarding Light Table since it's false.
- hyggetrold 2y ago
  Light Table was getting lift and traction but didn't make it. There was a ton of conversation on it back in the day on HN, including great presentations by the creator (who had been a PM on Visual Studio as MSFT!). Definitely check it out. There's definitely demand for this tool but it looks like it's hard to get it off the ground. Wishing you the best of luck!
  - throwaway4aday 2y ago
    someone should revive it as a GUI debugger. doing so would narrow the scope which should cut down on complexity. let people use their own editors and IDEs for making code changes. the focus should be on inspecting state, seeing live updates, allowing you to smoothly change inputs and immediately see the output, plus the usual debugger features like stepping through the program.
- eep_social 2y ago
  For 3D I’d run a clustering algo across the graph and use the Z axis to background “far” clusters. I’m imagining a typical graph might end up looking a bit like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/07-Laniakea_%28LofE07240%29.png/1280px-07-Laniakea_%28LofE07240%29.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/07... in which case I’d want to have whatever cluster/file/method/object I’m focused on front and center with some visual cues like low-contrast and z-axis perspective that preserves edges to show the “far” clusters that interact with the focal point. edit to add: as per usual, naming the clusters automatically might be hard.
  - hyggetrold 2y ago
    Interesting idea and curious - because when I look at that visualization, the first thing it reminds me of is gource.
    - eep_social 2y ago
      I had not heard of Gource, and it looks like it’s building its graph based on directory layout rather than code semantics but yep that’s about where I would start!
nine_k 2y ago
Not just Light Table from 2010s, but also I would expect that the authors know about Oberon from late 1980s. It also features code on a boundless canvas.

akshaysg 2y ago

A lot of people mentioned Light Table, but I didn't know about it until post-launch! It's interesting that you mention a more 3D view. We were ideating on this, but it's really hard to get right in a way that the user can understand. This is definitely part of our vision for the future though! EDIT: Deleted the bit about my speculation regarding Light Table since it's false.

hyggetrold 2y ago
Light Table was getting lift and traction but didn't make it. There was a ton of conversation on it back in the day on HN, including great presentations by the creator (who had been a PM on Visual Studio as MSFT!). Definitely check it out. There's definitely demand for this tool but it looks like it's hard to get it off the ground. Wishing you the best of luck!
- throwaway4aday 2y ago
  someone should revive it as a GUI debugger. doing so would narrow the scope which should cut down on complexity. let people use their own editors and IDEs for making code changes. the focus should be on inspecting state, seeing live updates, allowing you to smoothly change inputs and immediately see the output, plus the usual debugger features like stepping through the program.
eep_social 2y ago
For 3D I’d run a clustering algo across the graph and use the Z axis to background “far” clusters. I’m imagining a typical graph might end up looking a bit like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/07-Laniakea_%28LofE07240%29.png/1280px-07-Laniakea_%28LofE07240%29.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/07... in which case I’d want to have whatever cluster/file/method/object I’m focused on front and center with some visual cues like low-contrast and z-axis perspective that preserves edges to show the “far” clusters that interact with the focal point. edit to add: as per usual, naming the clusters automatically might be hard.
- hyggetrold 2y ago
  Interesting idea and curious - because when I look at that visualization, the first thing it reminds me of is gource.
  - eep_social 2y ago
    I had not heard of Gource, and it looks like it’s building its graph based on directory layout rather than code semantics but yep that’s about where I would start!

nine_k 2y ago

Not just Light Table from 2010s, but also I would expect that the authors know about Oberon from late 1980s. It also features code on a boundless canvas.