Next-Paradigm Programming Languages: What Will They Look Like?
There&#x27;s something I think could be game-changing on the front-end of programming languages:<p><i>Just</i> (as in &#x27;only&#x27;) change the (internal) representation of source code from character sequences to something that doesn&#x27;t need a complex parsing process. In other words, eliminating the concept of syntax from language design, while keeping other language properties intact (could even use e.g. an LLVM back-end), allowing whoever desires it to write their own editors etc. as always.<p>(This is different from eliminating text: IMO, the visualization should remain primarily text. I say to eliminate syntax in the sense that the text &#x27;visualization&#x27; no longer has a connection with semantics, nor any grammatical constraints.)<p>The reason I say <i>&#x27;just&#x27;</i> change that: there are other systems structured to render AST-like structures (rather than parsing), but they are integrated with particular software systems. We need a general purpose alternate format with a similar independence of any project that &#x27;character sequences&#x27; have for current source code.<p>------<p>I have a proposal for one that&#x27;s very simple and general: represent languages as graphs of language constructs, and represent particular programs as paths through a language graph. More details at [1].<p>Making this substitution we can: throw out parsing, allow easy customization of language appearance (including things that would traditionally fall under &#x27;syntax&#x27;), have much easier access to language insight (source representation is directly in terms of a language definition), give far easier to access to experimenting with language UX ideas, and more.<p>I&#x27;d love to hear thoughtful feedback on this. I will likely invest a solid amount of time&#x2F;effort into building a prototype before long, so if someone can spot a potential weakness that I&#x27;ve missed, I&#x27;d be forever grateful.<p>(That said, please attempt at least a small amount of charity in reading: I wrote this in 2015 and most all I&#x27;ve gotten is people replying, &quot;visual programming doesn&#x27;t work&quot; —even though it&#x27;s expressly <i>not</i> advocating visual programming. I believe I really am talking about something fairly new here: and I am more than willing to listen if I&#x27;m mistaken. I have too many projects already; I have no need for this to work out. I just haven&#x27;t been able to disprove it as... not being what it appears to be, and so I&#x27;ve felt an obligation to see it through for a long time.)<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;westoncb.blogspot.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;06&#x2F;how-to-make-view-independent-program.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;westoncb.blogspot.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;06&#x2F;how-to-make-view-indepe...</a>