Malleable Computing, Emacs, and You(yummymelon.com)
67 pointsby kickingvegas4 hours ago9 comments
  • sroerick3 hours ago
    This is a good discussion of these principles. Largely inspired by Emacs, I built an interpreted lisp which runs in a web server and stores the AST Postgres. It gives me this kind of malleable computing and a Lispy feel with very little overhead.

    Instead of calling an API, agents can just use functions in a REPL. They can also write new views and improve the program if they run into an issue. Honestly, pretty amazing stuff.

    Being able to design a program specifically for the workflow I want is pretty neat. There's some vibeslop jank, but Emacs is a little bit jank too.

  • jake_and_fatman34 minutes ago
    Useless without local/remote sync. Also kind of obvious is the preferability of composeable UNIX programs over heavily locked down monoliths, hardly calling for a Fred Brooks style exegesis.
  • gritzko3 hours ago
    JavaScript did this for the Web back in the day. I work on a malleable git-compatible SCM right now. First I put all the performance-critical parts into a native lib, then happily built my own git(hub) in JavaScript. Tastes differ, someone else may build it completely differently. I believe this is the right architecture for the LLM age.

    https://github.com/gritzko/beagle

  • kickingvegas2 hours ago
    OP here. Happy to answer any questions about my post in this thread.
    • AloysB33 minutes ago
      Great article, TIL vtable.

      Amazing how much value you got with 400 LoC (even though it's relying on multiple libraries).

  • cfiggers3 hours ago
    AutoHotkey adds a malleable computing layer to Windows.
    • paulryanrogersan hour ago
      Meh, it's better than nothing. Though not a great interface or DSL.
      • cfiggersan hour ago
        2.0 fixes a ton of stuff over 1.0, but yeah you're not wrong.

        Between custom keybinds, hot strings, and pop-up menus I have literally hundreds of tiny AHK scripts running 24/7. I'm pretty sure there's stuff I've literally forgotten is an AHK vs an actual part of Windows. It's all just ingrained in my muscle memory at this point.

  • __d3 hours ago
    There’s an interesting middle ground: not fully malleable software, where the end user has full customisation ability but requires full programming skill, but eg the Unix tool model where prebuilt utilities can be composed with a simple syntax.

    Pre-existing (or importable) ELisp functions are kinda similar, just a slightly higher level of user skill.

  • beepbooptheoryan hour ago
    This is nice but not even a mention of the rather robust existing solution here with Magit Forge?

    https://github.com/magit/forge

  • 4b11b42 hours ago
    I love emacs
  • pjmlp2 hours ago
    Yet another one rediscovers the way Lisp machines, Smalltalk, Cedar and Oberon were envisioned, and we never really got it in mainstream computing.

    Nice article.

    • Barrin925 minutes ago
      I genuinely do wonder why that has been the trajectory. When you look at the almost futuristic vision of interacting with living, programmable software objects and environments that evolve over time and you get a glimpse of it in Emacs, Pharo or Oberon (worth mentioning Free Oberon, fun to play around with https://free.oberon.org/en/ think it was on the frontpage recently), how did we go back to dead text files again?

      I always have to think the "the world if" meme when I think about what would have happened if the whole Engelbart, Licklider, Alan Kay school of thought had won out

    • kickingvegasan hour ago
      NGL, whenever I work with Cocoa APIs, I wistfully think of another timeline where we get a system-level SmallTalk style REPL and ecosystem accessing all of it.