Why on earth does it look like a book?
I'm getting over my abject hate of skeuomorphism. I'm coming 'round to the idea that it can help give users confidence that they'll be able to use your product.
...but this baffles me.
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Probably because the editor demo'd in the talk did as well. (But that still doesn't explain it.) Perhaps it's to make it friendlier and less an "intimidating code editor".
What I don't get is why the output is on the left and the code on the right (again as in Victor's talk). For left-to-right language users, a left-to-right flow of input to output makes more sense. It's not a huge issue, but still puzzling.
Well, since the code is left-to-right, and the editor is presumably as wide as the longest line, the content will tend to be skewed to the left. By putting the editor pane on the right, you reduce the average distance between the code and the output.
I suppose, though I'd rather it be resizable and let me take full advantage of a monitor. I've been experimenting with this sort of live code preview with http://padhacker.net/ (target platform primarily tablets) and resizing has worked out pretty well. (When it does work. Shrinking the iframe gets sticky.)
The skeuomorphism is failry subtle. Maybe if squeak / etoys had this interface it would have gained wider adoption?