Standing in the shower yesterday after a workout I "discovered" a problem that might happily engage me for the rest of my life.
Last year, iirc, I speculated that whatever was next would use the power of computation. The Aha was seeing that for me the most interesting "made things" in the world are computer programs. The proximate cause of the Aha was studying pythoscope, particularly the lib2to3 library. The Python documentation for 2to3 says: QQQ [The] 2to3 supporting library lib2to3 is, however, a flexible and generic library, so it is possible to write your own fixers for 2to3. lib2to3 could also be adapted to custom applications in which Python code needs to be edited automatically. QQQ Several people seem to have picked up on the potential of lib2to3. Up until yesterday, I missed the hint. Anyway, the way I describe my career to myself is to say that I have been making tools to overcome my own personal programming deficiencies. A tool like lib2to3, and tools like pythoscope (and autocompleters) built on lib2to3, point the way to ever more powerful tools that let computer programs assist in the design, building and testing of other computer programs. So this is the Aha: I can continue to do what I've always done, but expand its application to something much more exciting than editors. I'm convinced that the world has just started to use computers for this purpose, however many tools already exist. I have many ideas in this area, but the first step is to study the interaction between pythoscope (and other tools) and lib2to3. I'd like to create some tools to make the operation of lib2to3 clear using traces or other approaches, which reminds me that a few dozen lines of code might greatly enhance Python's standard logging classes. In short, I now have a huge problem for which tiny steps are available. In the realm of creativity, it doesn't get any better than this. Who would have dreamed pythoscope would have set off such an avalanche? Edward --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
