[wladimir]

What I've always found an intriguing idea is to store the abstract semantic graph of the program instead of (just) the text of the program in the revision control system. The source code could then be formatted / visualized in any way for the programmer while manipulating it. Kind of like a TeX, or CSS, but for source code. And I suppose it could also help with making sensible diffs, no longer need to be annoyed by addition of spaces / indentation / number of columns / etc.

[drothlis]

"A language should be designed in terms of an abstract syntax and it should have, perhaps, several forms of concrete syntax: One which is easy to write and maybe quite abbreviated; another which is good to look at and maybe quite fancy, but after all, the computer is going to produce it; and another, which is easy to make computers manipulate."

--John McCarthy, http://www.infoq.com/interviews/Steele-Interviews-John-McCar...

[vampirechicken]

Coffee Script / JavaScript dualty?