Re:Computers Aren't Fun Anymore (2020)
by tenaciousDaniel on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @04:24PM
(#26158986)
I'm very interested in the emergence of high-level, low-tech DSLs that are highly adoptable by traditionally non-techy people. For instance, I'm trying to build a language specifically for UI designers.
It's technically code, but it's meant for description rather than implementation, and it's designed to be easily understood by people who've never been exposed to data structures or flow control.
IMO high-level, low-tech DSLs are under-explored. Lots of possibilities there. I don't think you're necessarily limited to just text-based DSLs though; there's interesting opportunities when you pair with a UI. For example, see Pharo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOuZyOKa91o
Re:Computers Aren't Fun Anymore (2020)
by akkartik on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @05:25PM
(#26159537)
I have something that feels close to most of the things on your list. But it's diametrically opposite a DSL. Instead it's a _low_ level stack where you can easily drill down to understand how anything works. Programs come out a little verbose, but I find it fun. Here's Game of Life running on Qemu: https://merveilles.town/@akkartik/105727343646129865
Here's what I hope will become the shell for this computer (live-updating, postfix): https://archive.org/details/akkartik-2min-2020-12-06
The big caveat: I have _no_ idea yet how to build a network for this computer. It has a screen and a keyboard, and I can probably get some sort of persistent storage. But that's about it for a while.
Re:Computers Aren't Fun Anymore (2020)
by tenaciousDaniel on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @04:28PM
(#26159025)
absolutely!
Thank you :)
While I personally haven't gotten into board games, I love that Adama exists as a stake in the ground towards "better". And yeah, I agree with that closing sentiment too. This post is meant to be a rallying point for inventing new, better things.
For instance, Excel for me is the tool to use for a lot of numbers work, and I find Excel exceptionally more fun than a PL. However, it's not the way to make apps.
Now, if I wanted to build apps using the fun approach of Excel, then I can do it now with my new and shiny programming language for board games: http://www.adama-lang.org/
Yes, I wrote a language for board games! Why? Well, I'm a dummy. Ultimately, I'm trying to make it effortless to connect people around some state and what-not. I hate databases, and I have spent the last decade in infrastructure understanding the problem space.
Now, I am finding myself want to effortlessly build the user interface to the board game back-end, and so here I am foolishly inventing a new way to think about building products.
I believe your definition of fun is appropriate, but the bad news is that we are living in the dark ages. The only way out is to try to invent something, risk failure, risk scorn from our peers, and hope that we discover something. It's the only way out of the dark ages.