Formatting code should be unnecessary
3 days ago
- #DIANA
- #Programming History
- #Ada Language
- Mr. Paige, a computer science teacher, worked on the Ada compiler and had experience since the early 80s.
- In the 80s, Ada used an Intermediate Representation (IR) called DIANA instead of plain-text source code, allowing customizable pretty-printing.
- The Rational R1000 workstation featured incremental compilation, semantic analysis, version control, and first-class debugging, all built-in.
- DIANA (Descriptive Intermediate Attributed Notation for Ada) enabled advanced features like projectional editing and eliminated formatting debates.
- Benefits of DIANA included hardware-accelerated incremental compilation, easy refactoring, and fast integration for large systems.
- Modern programming still struggles with formatting issues, despite past solutions like DIANA.
- The post suggests exploring projectional editing and live environments to improve current programming paradigms.