Hi Kent,
Thanks for sharing this link. I have this feeling about the python
ecosystem (I could say that in general about OS paradigm, derived from
Unix). A step learning curve filled with a lot of details, different
paradigms and tools, joined with a lot friction (as I wrote on [1]).
[1]
http://mutabit.com/offray/static/blog/output/posts/grafoscopio-idea-and-initial-progress.html
I have talked several times about Leo and its "fulfilled prophesy" of
being a tool "from developers to developers" only, when the ideas of
outlining, self referential executable DOM, and deconstructing could be
welcomed in a lot of fields (for example academic writing or project
consulting). And when I say this I don't make it in a mean way. Leo, as
every human creation, is trapped by the culture of the human collective
who made it. So in a group of talented developers, what is seeing as
cumbersome for the "final user" (like editing leo files in Leo to change
a preference o to enable a plugin) is kind of "the natural thing" of a
dev environment. Same happens to what is considered an "interesting
problem" ("end user" experience and usability are not, usually). And I'm
not saying that I wouldn't like to have more empowered users, which can
talk more naturally to the computer and use it in more interesting ways,
but is a difficult bridge to build. My idea to explore that bridge with
my own interactive outliner is to narrow the functionality (just
tree-like interactive writing and visualization) and cross ideas from
Leo, IPython, Smalltalk and other places.
This phrase catch particularly my attention (because is pretty similar
to what happen to me):
"""
it is /honestly easier to learn an entirely new programming language and
toolchain, and rewrite an entire application/ than to figure out how to
build a self-contained executable in Python right now.
"""
Of course I'm not planing to rewrite Leo and I still value it a lot and
use it frequently, but dealing with the cognitive burden and impedance
of the common development and OS paradigm, which, as the blog post says,
is a systemic problem, not a Leo exclusive, was a constant effort that
made me rethink if there was not something lost in the not so common
places (like the dynabook before the rise of operative systems[2] or
Smalltalk instead of popular languages) with some valuable lessons to
start cross-pollination.
[2] http://tkbr.ccsp.sfu.ca/dynabook/
As always, this list and community are a place to find food for thought.
Cheers,
Offray
On 14/09/15 07:56, Kent Tenney wrote:
https://glyph.twistedmatrix.com/2015/09/software-you-can-use.html
"Python has a big problem. While it’s easy and fun to produce software
in Python, it’s hard to produce software that people - especially
laypeople who are not professional software developers - can use."
Seems to reflect issues that come up regarding Leo
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