Comment by anigbrowl | Hacker News Reader

Comment by anigbrowl | Hacker News Reader

http://www.dsprobotics.com/applications.html

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synt...

http://rawkes.com/articles/an-introduction-to-noflo-and-flow...

Please. Stop. Typing.

How much of your coding is spent on syntax, structure, and scope - jobs that the computer often does much better than you? What benefit is there in typing out the same loops and so on over and over and making people read your code in order to figure out what the structure should look like?

The reason people drew flowcharts by hand and then typed out programs was because the computers couldn't interpret complex diagrammatic programming in real time back in the 70s. This has changed, but people are still typing and think that color-coding and autocomplete are pretty snazzy features in a modern IDE.

Generic graphical programming, in things equivalent to your examples, has so far sucked. Anyone who has ever been forced to do it for more than a trivial amount of time, creating more than trivial programs, has experienced that.

I understand the 'non-textual programming' evangelism as wishing for something 'better than textual programming', but it's like people wondering whether there isn't something better than math to describe Nature. Unless you come up with something, there isn't and you can't claim there is or has to be. Some small parts can be described by diagrams and words perfectly. For the most part: math or bust.

Typing with autocomplete and syntax advice is much faster than manipulating diagrams. And you can diff the text with your existing source control tools.

This is why AutoCad has a command line.

A great example of only considering your own needs and not those who will be maintaining the code alter. Yes, typing is fast and easy, but it's also locking everyone into a dead development path. That's why so many people in the creative industries have moved on from it.

How much of your coding is spent on syntax, structure, and scope

I agree with you on syntax, but a computer definitely does not do structure better than me.

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