Item — HN Reader

There actually was a promising Microsoft research project called "Intentional Programming"(IP) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_programming) a few decades ago. The idea is good but i believe due to it being a true disruptive technology and other market forces it was shelved.

PS: Charles Simonyi, the inventor of IP, wrote a paper called "The Death of Computer Languages, The Birth of Intentional Programming" which is worth a read.

1 comments

Intentional programming is not tied to graphical representation even if that’s how it looked in a prototype. It’s more about separating program structure from detail, trying to better deliver on Dijkstra’s comment about a semantic layer at which one can be absolutely precise. I consider it required reading for anyone frustrated by the present state of programming.

The problem with IP was that it was all so hush-hush that there was no real "thing" i could get my hands on to understand it. I got that it was some form of a DSL or maybe a bunch of inter-linked DSLs connected together where you drew your specific requirement like a "Mindmap". But this is too high-level to get any idea of the implementation and usage. It could also be that this was all "much ado about nothing" in that the idea was well-known but marketing put a spin on the presentation to its own detriment.