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Date:Mon Aug 9 20:08:28 2003 
Subject:poplog interactive mode - PS -> Syntax editor 
From:eas-lab 
Volume-ID:1030809.01 

>Thanks for your comments on Ved's shortcomings.  I've got some of
 
>>No syntax colorizing has to be the top one,

Ved is great, but,
I think a 'syntax editor' would be a killer application for poplog.
But not just for poplog source code generation.
If it was data/table based so as to be adaptable for other languages
it could be an intro to poplog, for potentially new poplog users.

What happened to the movement, decades ago, towards more 
formalism, and where the source code generation was to be more 
automated ?

I've never used/seen a visual-syntax-editor where one just picks
the required 'structures', but it always seemed absurd to have the
possibility of making syntax errors by allowing unconstrained 
text entry.   How do these "visual things" work ?

Poplog's incremental compilation, it seems would fit naturally
with a 'syntax editor' ?

OTOH more minimalist languages seem to be crying out for
such a tool.
-----
Jonathan L Cunningham wrote:
> It certainly has a lot of features. So many, that I wonder if it will
> still be around in 5 years time[*]. It might. But typically
> featureitis is fatal to software, so it will need to achieve critical
> mass quickly - if it hasn't already. 

Poplog has this disease too.
-----

It would be of great added value (without much extra cost) if
such a project could be the basis of a formal collaborative
dispersed teaching exercise: no wiz-bang-hacking, but rather
a formal, heirarchical, disciplined development.  Where the 
documentation and the teaching value of the exercise is also
important. 

The first and last poplog tutorial which I found, which was well
integrated and completed a project was/is 'rivers'.
NB. "I found" could differ from "exists".


 -- Chris Glur.