Conor White-Sullivan đ @Conaw 2019-12-16
64. Alpha sheets (later project, diff team) let you use R & Python code in a collaborative excel like spreadsheet.
Was like Light Table but from another direction.
Adds programming to Excel, versus adding better reactive env to programming
https://youtube.com/watch?v=hddcNvU9UVIâŠ
Conor White-Sullivan đ @Conaw 2019-12-16
65. Light table had a very Bret Victor type feel
make it easier to explore what you could do
make it easier to get a handle on what is going on in the program in real time
give yourself a bunch of contextual information and focus your attention only on what matters
Conor White-Sullivan đ @Conaw 2019-12-16
66. That project (Light Table) thus offered huge potential for âintelligence augmentationâ
Allow people to solve problems that they otherwise wouldnât be capable of solving
Invent things they otherwise wouldnât have been capable of inventing
For beginners or experts alike!
Conor White-Sullivan đ @Conaw 2019-12-16
67. With both AlphaSheets and Light Table, you started with a tool and paradigm people were familiar with, and you added in either more programming power or a more powerful environment.
Both gave the users a clear path from where they were to a better world.
Conor White-Sullivan đ @Conaw 2019-12-16
68. Risk with both of those is incrementalism.
If you think that both excel and programming lead toward a dead end, perhaps you have to rethink things from first principles and go back to go forward.
Seemed like Chrisâs view
https://chris-granger.com/2014/03/27/toward-a-better-programming/âŠ
I donât *exactly* agree
Conor White-Sullivan đ @Conaw 2019-12-16
69. My take is you need co-evolution of tools and culture.
Tools shape us, then we shape our tools.
I believe in bootstrapping - in the Doug Engelbart sense.
Programming languages are as much about the community as about the underlying technology.
