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> I think the better metric to optimize for is how easy it is to go from seeing a piece of code for the first time to having a mental model for what its runtime behavior will be Actually yes, we've seen some evidence of this. In one instance, I was demonstrating the syntax of Eve to someone who really only had experience programming HTML, and he was able to point out a bug in my code without even running the program. I believe this is because the syntax is very minimal, there are very few core language operations (only 9), and the underlying data model is completely consistent throughout the language (everything is a record). You can only query and update records. When you only have a few consistent tools, you can wield each one with greater confidence. Also, in Eve if you want to know what a block does you can just ask for the output right next to the block, so there's no guessing. You can look at it as text, a table, a chart, or any number of visualizations you can come up with. When you have the output and the source code right next to each other, updating in real time, and recompiling automatically as your code changes, you can get a better sense for what each individual part does in a block of code. You can even point at a specific element and ask "What draws this". We hope that all of these features will encourage new users to feel the freedom to explore, make mistakes, and build their own mental model of how Eve works, without having to understand set theory. |