I wish for a future where we can have more than one concurrent view of the same code. Structure need not be derived from from mere files and newlines and a handful of semantic organizational elements (function, class, module).

The current way of doing things forces us to make a compromise between prioritizing the forest over the trees, or vice versa. Programming languages are largely concerned with the trees' bark. But to make good software, you need to see and understand both, so the compromise is always a problem.

The solution probably needs large-scale re-imagining of how compilers, languages, version control, and editors/ides work (which also requires one to accept that working with a simple flat-file text editor won't work -- a bitter pill to swallow for someone like me who likes the simplicity of simple text editors).

I have some (very vague) ideas, but gosh, how do I find the time to experiment and refine or reject them...