Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Using verbose English grammar to describe software, might be easy to learn and look nice, but it's a severely restricted by it's intended use-cases.

It's a similar problem to visual programming and AI based programming (GPT-3), where you're fundamentally describing a very implicit program. In some use-cases this is fine, but in many situations it can be difficult, unpredictable or even impossible to describe the program using implicit language.




The HyperTalk language is well-documented. It has a clearly-defined syntax like any other programming language. It just happens to look more natural than most, but it's not an unpredictable guessing game like Wolfram Alpha.


But isn’t that the point. It’s a well documented programming language.

You just have to remember longer commands, which while cute at first gets tiring quickly, even for novices


It's an accessible scripting language designed for non-technical users.

Which is obvious. What's less obvious is that a good accessible scripting language for non-technical users renders plenty of inaccessible programming redundant. So in the bigger picture it's much less tiring than the alternative we have today, which locks users out of all but the most trivial and useless DIY web publishing.

Hypercard could easily have become the foundation for a different vision of the web. If it had, the current shitpile of competing frameworks, languages, levels of concern, and so on would have been hugely lessened.


It’s arguably easier to remember, the way a speaker of a Romance language can more easily pick up other Romance languages.

And it’s also easier to read if you’re not an expert on the language.

I think something like this has its place. I found it very empowering as an 8 year old kid.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: