Dreaming of new generation IDE

[Robert Kern]

On 2010-02-03 14:40 PM, Robert wrote:
> Vladimir Ignatov wrote:
>> dynamic-type languages. Instead of current text-oriented IDEs, it
>> should be a database-centric and resemble current CAD systems instead
>> of being just "fancy text editor". Source text should be an output
>> product of that CAD and not a "source material" itself.
>
> can you sketch an example/use case more concretely?

I believe that Smalltalk came pretty close to what Vladimir is asking for. You 
wrote the methods as linear plain text, but you used the GUI three pane class 
browser to define and navigate classes. You could export class definitions to a 
text file and read them back in, but in Vladimir's terms, the text files were 
not the "source material" themselves.

   http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/wolfgang.kreutzer/cosc205/smalltalk1.html

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco