[media][/media]

I think so.

At least it's a nice preview of the potential of this new approach, IMO.

More info about it can be found here:
http://blogs.msdn.co...ger-canvas.aspx

On an interesting note, I'm working on a similar tool codenamed Conception. I've started getting relevant ideas and interest in this topic about 1 year ago, and only later found out about similar work by Code Bubbles and its branches when doing previous work research. Thank god there was some work going on by others too, I was afraid I was the only one to think about alternative approaches...

What are your thoughts? Do you agree this could pave the way for a better way to develop in the future, or do you strongly believe nothing will ever top a glorified text editor (aka existing Visual Studio, Xcode, Sublime Text 2)?

Relevant: Light Table (the Kickstarter's finished now - it got funded, and is in this summer's Y Combinator; there's more details available elsewhere on the site)

Aye, I've realized a while back that the system of grouping code into files isn't really optimal. When I work on my code, I usually want to look at specific function or a class definition - I dont really care which file it is defined in. The "go to definition" in VS works decently, but I'd prefer it actually isolated the functions instead of just dropping me in the middle of a long file or opening so many different file tabs if you are jumping around.

This seems to solve the problem nicely and I dig that. My only complaint is that the debugger does not seem like it would be the most optimal to use (I prefer a traditional call stack) but it may be just a matter of getting used to it.

Relevant: Light Table (the Kickstarter's finished now - it got funded, and is in this summer's Y Combinator; there's more details available elsewhere on the site)

Thanks for sharing! How do I not find out about these things...

Aye, I've realized a while back that the system of grouping code into files isn't really optimal. When I work on my code, I usually want to look at specific function or a class definition - I dont really care which file it is defined in.

Precisely!

Having to deal with files is "shit work". Something you have to do just to get your work done, but it's not meaningful. It's something a dev env should do for you. What you want to do is deal with functions, classes, etc.

Being tied down to files not only negatively affects navigation, but more so creation/deletion. I want to create new functions, classes. I don't want to have to create files to accomodate said classes/functions.

These are the principles guiding my Conception project. In it, creating a new function/class, or changing the inheritance relationships can be done trivially with 1 click, rather than 30+ keyboard strokes involving cutting and pasting lines of code, changing names, typing boilerplate code and adding files...

[quote name='TheUnbeliever' timestamp='1339159545' post='4947342']
Relevant: Light Table (the Kickstarter's finished now - it got funded, and is in this summer's Y Combinator; there's more details available elsewhere on the site)

Thanks for sharing! How do I not find out about these things...

Aye, I've realized a while back that the system of grouping code into files isn't really optimal. When I work on my code, I usually want to look at specific function or a class definition - I dont really care which file it is defined in.

Precisely!

Having to deal with files is "shit work". Something you have to do just to get your work done, but it's not meaningful. It's something a dev env should do for you. What you want to do is deal with functions, classes, etc.

Being tied down to files not only negatively affects navigation, but more so creation/deletion. I want to create new functions, classes. I don't want to have to create files to accomodate said classes/functions.

These are the principles guiding my Conception project. In it, creating a new function/class, or changing the inheritance relationships can be done trivially with 1 click, rather than 30+ keyboard strokes involving cutting and pasting lines of code, changing names, typing boilerplate code and adding files...
[/quote]

Most of these things are abstracted away nicely in good IDEs. Rarely do I have to navigate to source files in Visual Studio any more.

Looks cool, but I think its advantages are lost for projects with thousands of files.

I believe the code would still be in files, because else it wouldnt be very portable. There would probably be code windows which display a file, and windows which display the objects and their relations. Or maybe it could separate each function and class from the file and display that, and have some rules for what things to internally have in the same file.

I hope not. There are some concepts that can be taken from this and applied in great ways. But I would hate to work on a project that used that Code Canvas.

I hope not. There are some concepts that can be taken from this and applied in great ways. But I would hate to work on a project that used that Code Canvas.

Code canvas is a UI. It doesn't change the nature of the project at all, it just changes the way you view the project.

Relevant: Light Table (the Kickstarter's finished now - it got funded, and is in this summer's Y Combinator; there's more details available elsewhere on the site)

If this is the future of IDEs, I'm all in. That RT-debugging-REPL feature is far superior to anything any version of VS has had. Plus, I have a growing affection for Scheme. So it's all good!