Research Ideas

Problems to solve

• it’s so hard to get a sense of a project via the folders and files abstraction

• higher-order functions are tricky to understand

• it’s difficult to keep track of the specific problem we’re working on and how it pertains to the larger goal

• version control of firebase, for development, rollbacks

• it’s difficult to be precise, especially when you don’t yet know the words of the system

Ideas to solve them

• create the equivalent but for researchers (borrowing from Alan Kay, how to invent the future) http://blog.samaltman.com/startup-advice-briefly

• streams as spreadsheets
  • http://futureofcoding.org/journal#streams-as-spreadsheets
  • http://futureofcoding.org/journal#streams-as-spreadsheets-2
  • http://futureofcoding.org/journal#august-25-2017-757pm
  • http://futureofcoding.org/journal#august-28-2017-228pm
• mock up what it would look like to have layers as the core computational abstraction, allowing users to peak under the hood of their apps, change things, and submit pull requests without leaving the app.
  • http://futureofcoding.org/journal#layers-as-functional-abstraction

• continue researching types-as-shapes, potentially even building a prototype

• build a generic expression building widget/library (google sheets formulas but without syntax errors)

• build a Workflowy-like work planning and branching tool (potentially for woofjs.com)
  • http://futureofcoding.org/journal#workflowy-git
• reactive game engines
  • make a reactive WoofJS
    • http://futureofcoding.org/journal#reactive-woofjs
  • make a game engine with an aprt.us interface
    • http://futureofcoding.org/journal#aprtus-like-interface-as-game-builder
  • make an Elm game engine
    • http://futureofcoding.org/journal#elm-game-engine

• can we combine strong types + macros to get natural language coding or less stack overflow?

• make list of all rich “fabric” (powerful ideas) for genetic epistology, such as precision, debugging, mindfulness, definitionism, modeling, etc

• essay about why we should stop teaching for loops in favor of forEach loops and while loops (is this how python works already?)

• essay about pg’s lists are just numbers and numbers are just lists. what are core data structures?

• essay about stop teaching sorting algorithms

• essay about the flexbox block in cycle v2
  • what would a “Turing-complete” layout engine look like? (in the sense that SQL is a Turing-complete query langauge)

• continue working on Cycle v2 w/o VueJS (and maybe without Blockly)

• continue working on Rose v1 with text as UI

• work on a Lamdu- or Unison- like structured editor for the web (https://pumpula.net/foolproof-html/)

• “click this one button to make flappy bird”

• community where you pair near-peers together to learn together (no money making)