
Flowsheets Visualizations - mpweiher
http://tinyletter.com/Flowsheets/letters/flowsheets-visualizations
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seanmcdirmid
This is really cool! The author might want to check on papers on Forms/3, a
spreadsheet programming language developed in the 90s (and you can run it if
you have a HP/UX or Solaris system lying around). I’m busy designing my own
spreadsheet based system ATM, with the idea that abstraction can occur
gradually (like gradual typing), so concrete expressions can be turned into
more abstract ones via refactoring actions (Jonathan Edwards has been active
in this area also, and Bret Victor has that whole “create by abstracting”
section in his learnable programming essay). Early work at
[https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AMMhHFdi9qhLJ6M&cid=51...](https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AMMhHFdi9qhLJ6M&cid=51C4267D41507773&id=51C4267D41507773%2113185&parId=51C4267D41507773%21139&o=OneUp)
but I’ve completely changed the design at this point.

Anyways, nice to see more action in this space!

~~~
Glench
Author here. I've studied Forms/3 a bit! It's a good reference.

Flogo from Chris Hancock is also good to know about:
[https://llk.media.mit.edu/papers/ch-
phd.pdf](https://llk.media.mit.edu/papers/ch-phd.pdf)

~~~
seanmcdirmid
I really like what you did with the nested grid layout, it’s totaly an idea
worth stealing!

Flogo 2 and Hancock’s dissertation are my goto for live programming origin
work. There has all been some recent out of MIT (called object-sheets). Also,
Fowler’s illustrative programming post helps to put spreadsheet programming
into better context:
[https://martinfowler.com/bliki/IllustrativeProgramming.html](https://martinfowler.com/bliki/IllustrativeProgramming.html).

Also, here is a recent survey I wrote up about the field a couple of years
ago:
[https://conf.researchr.org/getImage/live-2016/orig/LIVE_2016...](https://conf.researchr.org/getImage/live-2016/orig/LIVE_2016_paper_1.pdf)

You might find it useful.

~~~
Glench
Oh hi Sean I didn't see that it was you. We worked at CDG at the same time!

Thanks for the links and survey. I think something like "illustrative
programming" is going to be really important. There's already some evidence of
this in the observation that programming in Flowsheets is just so _pleasant_.
I'm working on a couple demos that try bring this pleasantness to other types
of programs.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Ah? What lab? I regret never actually getting to meet everyone. It makes sense
that we all had similar ideas about how to change programming :).

Anyways, we should have some kind of meeting about this eventually (with
people like Jonathan Edwards, Chris Granger, and probably many others). There
is the LIVE workshop held yearly at SPLASH, the next one being in Boston at
the end of October.

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openthedamper
here is author's repo:
[https://github.com/Glench/Flowsheets-v2](https://github.com/Glench/Flowsheets-v2)
this is very cool and intuitive interface. Hope that Glen will continue to
develop!

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galfarragem
I sometimes use Excel (a Swiss army knife..) to literally build scripts based
on small pieces that I can test individually. Having a specific spreadsheet
for it would be awesome!

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erAck
Geez, please.. do your audience a favor and _talk_ _to the audience_ to have
them listen ... and here.. umm.. mumble mumble.. I make.. mumble.. yay..
mumble.. do.. umm.. mumble.. kills the attention span after 55 seconds.

The topic may be interesting, but I quit after not even 2 minutes because of
the way it was presented.

~~~
Glench
While your comment could have been presented more kindly, I do appreciate that
feedback and will try to polish future demos to make them more watchable.

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Already__Taken
This would make a fantastic powershell repl console.

