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This is why I think Bret Victor's stuff, while incredibly cool and interesting, will have a tough time living up to his vision.
by jeroen94704 13y ago
This is why I think Bret Victor's stuff, while incredibly cool and interesting, will have a tough time living up to his vision.
- pazimzadeh 13y agoOn the other hand, think of how much power a program like PowerPoint gives the average user without forcing them to learn the underlying technologies. Or the iPhone. I think that user interface design solves most of the leakiness problems, and the illusion of seamlessness is critical to good interface design. Remove as many features as you have to so that the abstraction doesn't leak. PowerPoint came out in 1990 - what's the PowerPoint of 2020?
- jeroen94704 13y agoAll good points, however Bret Victor has specifically been showing off alternatives to low level programming by building very high levels of abstraction. He has even apparently said that he thinks the development community is purposely keeping programming complicated to maintain the demand for their specialized skills. I think the law of leaky abstractions is why it is simply not possible to elevate programming to a level of abstraction that allows people without specialized skills to implement arbitrary applications.