Not often I can read an essay that leaves me at the same time so excited and so disappointed.
Excited because I found myself agreeing with every point: isn't it obvious to everyone that the programming experience could be so much better? We created wonderful tools for graphical expression and number crunching, that keep getting better [1] [2], while our own day-to-day tools remain basically in a rut.
Disappointed because it seems LightTable is foregoing an incremental path to reach the goal, choosing the boil-the-ocean approach. We do need more long term start-from-scratch rethink everything kind of projects; like what VPRI's STEPS project aims to achieve [3]. But there is a lot that can be done to improve the programming experience today, and I don't see enough work in this area. IMO, the latest meaningful improvement in software development tooling was Intellij Idea around 2001 (arguably the functional programming renaissance represents another meaningful improvement, but the real breakthroughs there happened in the 70s). LightTable moving to the Blue plane leaves the PinkPlane unattended.
Excited because I found myself agreeing with every point: isn't it obvious to everyone that the programming experience could be so much better? We created wonderful tools for graphical expression and number crunching, that keep getting better [1] [2], while our own day-to-day tools remain basically in a rut.
Disappointed because it seems LightTable is foregoing an incremental path to reach the goal, choosing the boil-the-ocean approach. We do need more long term start-from-scratch rethink everything kind of projects; like what VPRI's STEPS project aims to achieve [3]. But there is a lot that can be done to improve the programming experience today, and I don't see enough work in this area. IMO, the latest meaningful improvement in software development tooling was Intellij Idea around 2001 (arguably the functional programming renaissance represents another meaningful improvement, but the real breakthroughs there happened in the 70s). LightTable moving to the Blue plane leaves the PinkPlane unattended.
[1] http://www.adobe.com/technology/projects/content-aware-fill.... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UccfqwwOCoY [3] http://www.viewpointsresearch.org/html/writings.php