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Has anyone tried to store/diff/share code as ASTs... This is such an interesting idea I had to respond. To point out that it could go well beyond formatting, t
by jloughry 12y ago
Has anyone tried to store/diff/share code as ASTs...
This is such an interesting idea I had to respond. To point out that it could go well beyond formatting, to variable and function names as well. With an AST-aware editor, I could even have multiple "views" on the same code; e.g., a crunched version with abbreviated names for a high-level view, personally styled library calls, curried functions, all sorts of things.
It wouldn't require too much bookkeeping to track that sort of information per-programmer. I think it's a fascinating idea. I haven't looked into the implementation of syntax highlighting in current editors; I wonder if the infrastructure is already part-way there.