Useless without local/remote sync. Also kind of obvious is the preferability of composeable UNIX programs over heavily locked down monoliths, hardly calling for a Fred Brooks style exegesis.
sroerick 3 hours ago [-]
This is a good discussion of these principles. Largely inspired by Emacs, I built an interpreted lisp which runs in a web server and stores the AST Postgres. It gives me this kind of malleable computing and a Lispy feel with very little overhead.
Instead of calling an API, agents can just use functions in a REPL. They can also write new views and improve the program if they run into an issue. Honestly, pretty amazing stuff.
Being able to design a program specifically for the workflow I want is pretty neat. There's some vibeslop jank, but Emacs is a little bit jank too.
gritzko 3 hours ago [-]
JavaScript did this for the Web back in the day. I work on a malleable git-compatible SCM right now. First I put all the performance-critical parts into a native lib, then happily built my own git(hub) in JavaScript. Tastes differ, someone else may build it completely differently. I believe this is the right architecture for the LLM age.
OP here. Happy to answer any questions about my post in this thread.
AloysB 10 minutes ago [-]
Great article, TIL vtable.
Amazing how much value you got with 400 LoC (even though it's relying on multiple libraries).
__d 3 hours ago [-]
There’s an interesting middle ground: not fully malleable software, where the end user has full customisation ability but requires full programming skill, but eg the Unix tool model where prebuilt utilities can be composed with a simple syntax.
Pre-existing (or importable) ELisp functions are kinda similar, just a slightly higher level of user skill.
cfiggers 2 hours ago [-]
AutoHotkey adds a malleable computing layer to Windows.
paulryanrogers 45 minutes ago [-]
Meh, it's better than nothing. Though not a great interface or DSL.
cfiggers 26 minutes ago [-]
2.0 fixes a ton of stuff over 1.0, but yeah you're not wrong.
Between custom keybinds, hot strings, and pop-up menus I have literally hundreds of tiny AHK scripts running 24/7. I'm pretty sure there's stuff I've literally forgotten is an AHK vs an actual part of Windows. It's all just ingrained in my muscle memory at this point.
beepbooptheory 33 minutes ago [-]
This is nice but not even a mention of the rather robust existing solution here with Magit Forge?
Yet another one rediscovers the way Lisp machines, Smalltalk, Cedar and Oberon were envisioned, and we never really got it in mainstream computing.
Nice article.
kickingvegas 39 minutes ago [-]
NGL, whenever I work with Cocoa APIs, I wistfully think of another timeline where we get a system-level SmallTalk style REPL and ecosystem accessing all of it.
Rendered at 00:55:16 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Instead of calling an API, agents can just use functions in a REPL. They can also write new views and improve the program if they run into an issue. Honestly, pretty amazing stuff.
Being able to design a program specifically for the workflow I want is pretty neat. There's some vibeslop jank, but Emacs is a little bit jank too.
https://github.com/gritzko/beagle
Amazing how much value you got with 400 LoC (even though it's relying on multiple libraries).
Pre-existing (or importable) ELisp functions are kinda similar, just a slightly higher level of user skill.
Between custom keybinds, hot strings, and pop-up menus I have literally hundreds of tiny AHK scripts running 24/7. I'm pretty sure there's stuff I've literally forgotten is an AHK vs an actual part of Windows. It's all just ingrained in my muscle memory at this point.
https://github.com/magit/forge
Nice article.