Show HN: Pt, an experiment on visual forms
williamngan.github.io
williamngan.github.io
I think that, when you step back from programming in text, and think of it as 'creating ideas' you realise that we've barely scratched the surface. Often when I solve problems in my head it's a mix of visual/verbal thoughts with past memories thrown in too. Your demos show that visualization is a powerful tool, but how do you make it useful?
Being able to see the world and visualise is like the base code for being a human, but computers are all math and text. Bringing visualization to programming is surely the next step. Already the cogs are turning to try and bring realtime REPLs to IDEs (such as light table, and visual studio code online) in order to see data as you code. I imagine from here the next step would to be able to visualise that data beyond text, and be able to edit the visualization and see the code change as a result.
Though I'm not sure if a "visual" IDE will solve this. To me, it's more about a language that can express thoughts with clarity and directness, and also about a kind of literacy in code as poets would have with words and meters.
Sometimes I kept thinking about those stone axes and clay tablets and scribbles on bones, and how, in a couple thousand years, they evolved into lolcats. Given this explosion of technology, what sort of new expressions in code will we see in 10-20 years? It's fascinating to think about.