Re:Show HN: Mesh IDE – a code editor that feels like a sprea...
by erikpukinskis on Saturday July 22, 2017 @01:39PM
(#14828302)
> Isn't this just another species of the same fallacy: that programming is just a special case of natural language use
No, because I'm describing a bounded system with a very simple grammar. Statements like:
say "Will this solve the problem?"
onAnswer "yes", unlockBillableClock
... that's not natural grammar. That's a function call. And strings.
And second, I'm not talking about ALL programming, I'm talking about end-user programming. Below this layer is a lot of code written by profession programmers in lots of languages.
You're not going to write a web browser with only function calls and string literals.
What I would question is the orthodoxy that there is NO place in your codebase where you could refactor to a non-programmer understandable form by forcing yourself to use only calls and lists of strings.
No, because I'm describing a bounded system with a very simple grammar. Statements like:
... that's not natural grammar. That's a function call. And strings.And second, I'm not talking about ALL programming, I'm talking about end-user programming. Below this layer is a lot of code written by profession programmers in lots of languages.
You're not going to write a web browser with only function calls and string literals.
What I would question is the orthodoxy that there is NO place in your codebase where you could refactor to a non-programmer understandable form by forcing yourself to use only calls and lists of strings.