6 ms·

Show HN: Abstract Visual Debugger [video]

37 points by westoncb 11y ago

munro 11y ago
This reminds me of the coding visualization from the movie The Zero Theorem. There doesn't seem to be any clips of it online, but here's a screencap from it [1]. [1] http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/a_c/08_2.jpg http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/a_c/08_2.jpg
- westoncb 11y ago
  Heh, awesome! I'm gonna have to watch that...
vmorgulis 11y ago
This is great. A little bit like CodeCity (http://www.inf.usi.ch/phd/wettel/codecity.html http://www.inf.usi.ch/phd/wettel/codecity.html).
azeirah 11y ago
I've made something somewhat similar in JavaScript. It's a framework that synchronises objects (and arrays) over multiple web pages, maintaining a two-way binding between all webpages. This framework allows you to build visualizations like the one in the OP. Right now, I have a visualization that shows all your objects as cards, and you can change values inside the cards while your program is running. https://github.com/Azeirah/Object.remote https://github.com/Azeirah/Object.remote All you have to do in your source is replace any var a = {val: 10} with var a = client.createRemoteObject({val: 10});
seanmcdirmid 11y ago
If the author is reading, this would be nice to see as a submission to the future of programming workshop (http://www.future-programming.org/call.html http://www.future-programming.org/call.html).
- westoncb 11y ago
  Author here! That sounds cool. I've never done anything like that, but I'll look into it and see if it's feasible for me to participate... I've been working on something else in this domain recently too, in case anyone wants more :) http://westoncb.blogspot.com/2015/06/why-programming-languages-dont-have.html http://westoncb.blogspot.com/2015/06/why-programming-languag...
  - azeirah 11y ago
    I'm interested in what you're interested in, I made a blog post a long time ago (my only blog post) that was about this exactly. It's kinda bad, but if you want to read it it's available right here: http://blog.martijnbrekelmans.com/the-road-to-automatic-code-visualization/ http://blog.martijnbrekelmans.com/the-road-to-automatic-code... I'm building up a collection of related articles, videos, demos, experiments etc which I will compile into a readable format and release at some point. Definitely check out https://github.com/cdglabs/moonchild.git https://github.com/cdglabs/moonchild.git
    - westoncb 11y ago
      Cool--I'll check it out.
      - azeirah 11y ago
        I've sent you an email about the compilation I've made.
  - seanmcdirmid 11y ago
    The FpW accepts video submissions and isn't very academic (with dates at Strangeloop and the more academic SPLASH). It is a good venue to share and exchange ideas/critique with like-minded programming experience revolutionaries. The above post sounds a bit like Simoni's Intentional Programming work. It didn't seem to go very far (well, they have a company started off of it, but Simoni seemed to have been distracted by Martha Stewart and outer space :) ), but you might want to check out the work.
pierrec 11y ago
This would be great for some domains, not only debugging but also teaching. "unless I can fund it somehow [...], it's going to move slowly. " That's one way to see it. There's also a good chance it would gain traction if it was open source, especially considering how it targets programmers. The same could apply to the other project that you say is sadly semi-dead - maybe it wouldn't be if others were given a chance to use it and contribute. To be sure, one needs to make a living. But being the creator of such impressive open-source projects can certainly help in that regard. If you really want to retain the possibility of commercializing them, just stick a dual license on them. This is, of course, only an idea and my personal way of approaching this kind of thing. To each his own. TL;DR: If this was on Github, I would probably contribute!
- westoncb 11y ago
  Hey pierrec! I'm definitely thinking along those lines. Partly I haven't so far because I don't get how collaboration/organizing works on open source projects—any suggestions for something I could read on those lines? And then the other part of it is, unsurprisingly, that I have retained some hope of commercializing one of them. While I love programming, I have found that I really do not enjoy being employed as a programmer and see these projects as nearly my only chance of getting to work on my own things. Also looking into getting an A+ certification and moving into IT... shrug —it's getting to the point now, however, that I just have too many partially completed projects piled up, and I think open source is probably a good way of going forward with 'em. Thanks for the suggestion.

37 points by westoncb 11y ago

munro 11y ago

This reminds me of the coding visualization from the movie The Zero Theorem. There doesn't seem to be any clips of it online, but here's a screencap from it [1]. [1] http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/a_c/08_2.jpg http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/a_c/08_2.jpg

westoncb 11y ago
Heh, awesome! I'm gonna have to watch that...

vmorgulis 11y ago

This is great. A little bit like CodeCity (http://www.inf.usi.ch/phd/wettel/codecity.html http://www.inf.usi.ch/phd/wettel/codecity.html).

azeirah 11y ago

I've made something somewhat similar in JavaScript. It's a framework that synchronises objects (and arrays) over multiple web pages, maintaining a two-way binding between all webpages. This framework allows you to build visualizations like the one in the OP. Right now, I have a visualization that shows all your objects as cards, and you can change values inside the cards while your program is running. https://github.com/Azeirah/Object.remote https://github.com/Azeirah/Object.remote All you have to do in your source is replace any var a = {val: 10} with var a = client.createRemoteObject({val: 10});

seanmcdirmid 11y ago

If the author is reading, this would be nice to see as a submission to the future of programming workshop (http://www.future-programming.org/call.html http://www.future-programming.org/call.html).

westoncb 11y ago
Author here! That sounds cool. I've never done anything like that, but I'll look into it and see if it's feasible for me to participate... I've been working on something else in this domain recently too, in case anyone wants more :) http://westoncb.blogspot.com/2015/06/why-programming-languages-dont-have.html http://westoncb.blogspot.com/2015/06/why-programming-languag...
- azeirah 11y ago
  I'm interested in what you're interested in, I made a blog post a long time ago (my only blog post) that was about this exactly. It's kinda bad, but if you want to read it it's available right here: http://blog.martijnbrekelmans.com/the-road-to-automatic-code-visualization/ http://blog.martijnbrekelmans.com/the-road-to-automatic-code... I'm building up a collection of related articles, videos, demos, experiments etc which I will compile into a readable format and release at some point. Definitely check out https://github.com/cdglabs/moonchild.git https://github.com/cdglabs/moonchild.git
  - westoncb 11y ago
    Cool--I'll check it out.
    - azeirah 11y ago
      I've sent you an email about the compilation I've made.
- seanmcdirmid 11y ago
  The FpW accepts video submissions and isn't very academic (with dates at Strangeloop and the more academic SPLASH). It is a good venue to share and exchange ideas/critique with like-minded programming experience revolutionaries. The above post sounds a bit like Simoni's Intentional Programming work. It didn't seem to go very far (well, they have a company started off of it, but Simoni seemed to have been distracted by Martha Stewart and outer space :) ), but you might want to check out the work.

pierrec 11y ago

This would be great for some domains, not only debugging but also teaching. "unless I can fund it somehow [...], it's going to move slowly. " That's one way to see it. There's also a good chance it would gain traction if it was open source, especially considering how it targets programmers. The same could apply to the other project that you say is sadly semi-dead - maybe it wouldn't be if others were given a chance to use it and contribute. To be sure, one needs to make a living. But being the creator of such impressive open-source projects can certainly help in that regard. If you really want to retain the possibility of commercializing them, just stick a dual license on them. This is, of course, only an idea and my personal way of approaching this kind of thing. To each his own. TL;DR: If this was on Github, I would probably contribute!

westoncb 11y ago
Hey pierrec! I'm definitely thinking along those lines. Partly I haven't so far because I don't get how collaboration/organizing works on open source projects—any suggestions for something I could read on those lines? And then the other part of it is, unsurprisingly, that I have retained some hope of commercializing one of them. While I love programming, I have found that I really do not enjoy being employed as a programmer and see these projects as nearly my only chance of getting to work on my own things. Also looking into getting an A+ certification and moving into IT... shrug —it's getting to the point now, however, that I just have too many partially completed projects piled up, and I think open source is probably a good way of going forward with 'em. Thanks for the suggestion.