

Why did I reimplement Jekyll using NoFlo - bergie
http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/noflo-jekyll/

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skore
Didn't know about NoFlo before this, previous discussions here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6139509](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6139509)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6144951](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6144951)

The UI looks neat, but the kickstarter video was a mixed bag. Did somebody
tell a bunch of people to talk very loudly? Was that the plan to make it
"engaging"? Because it did unfortunately have a touch of bro-gramming.*

I'm not sure whether it really is the killer approach to writing software.
Where I do see it is in customization. A lot of business logic programming
relies on offering flexibility on an intermediary level. Providing the right
components for software integrators seems like a very good idea. You'll still
need text-based programmers to do the grunt- and architectural work, of
course. Because no matter what the fancy graphics convey: Somebody is going to
need to sit in front of a screen and type text into an editor.

Finally - all this and no online demo to check out? Am I missing the crucial
link?

[Edit] Found this: [http://meemoo.org/dataflow/](http://meemoo.org/dataflow/)

*Not all of it did - I'm not going to call J Paul Morrison a bro-grammer - but I really don't need people to seem worked up in a video at all. It just seems somewhat artificial, like a comedian dying of laughter from a joke they have already told to hundreds of audiences.

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outworlder
I am not sure the kickstart video was designed for the target audience. Sorry,
but "boxes and arrows" are not enough to convey what NoFlo actually is.

If anything, it reminds me of UML, even though I know it is not the same
thing. But it does not get more technical than "boxes and arrows", so it is
not possible to understand what it actually is all about.

The video is way, way dumbed down. It's supposed to be a tool, so explain how
the tool works and what it does. A subway metaphor is not enough - we have had
those every since UML came along.

Having said that, I think we need to be able to have multiple representations
for code. Text is only one of the possibilities.

~~~
skore
Fully agreed - I think the main problem of NoFlo is that I'm not sure who
they're trying to get on board. Developers will be put off by the appeal for
"popular" platforms and the dumbing down. But I'm not sure who else but
developers is supposed to care about this stuff?

That's why I highlighted the "jargon" bit in my other reply - It seems like
they have identified "people who manage or contract developers" as one (or
maybe even "the") target audience.

I think that's worrying - at least if it is carried out in this tone. A good
developer shouldn't need fancy flow charts to convey to you that she can or
does deliver what you pay her to do. It might be what people _want_ to have -
"If only somebody would solve this problem that I cannot understand developers
and they're always misleading me" \- but that doesn't mean that you should
pander to it. Because at its worst, you're simply giving out fancier tools for
misleading clients.

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joeblau
Thanks for this post. It's a really cool example of using NoFlo to refactor a
project. I'm actually about to start using Jekyll on a project, but since I'm
more into Node I might go with the NoFlo implementation.

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bergie
Repository is at [https://github.com/the-grid/noflo-
jekyll](https://github.com/the-grid/noflo-jekyll)

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cbhl
> _other data sources that the file system_

I think you mean "sources _than_ the" here.

~~~
bergie
Thanks, fix pushed!

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CmonDev
Why are they putting that pony-tail dude on every photo? Is he some sort of
programming celebrity?

~~~
bergie
Nope, but I started NoFlo. Among some other open source things :-)

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jdmitch
great post! bad kerning :(

