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Comment by skrebbel | Hacker News Reader

A 'macro system for tools'. Isn't this what the academic bozos call Language Workbenches?

Extensible tool-building platforms for DSLs are hardly anything new. Reading things like this, i sometimes worry that the HN-circling web crowd is reinventing things that others invented just a few years ago. Like some sort of collective not-invented-here syndrome.

E.g. Check out MetaEdit+ - their website isn't Silicon Valley Sexy, but the tool is amazing. And has been, for the past 10+ years. http://www.metacase.com/mep/

Now, there's plenty new and well-rehashed ideas in Light Table. I'll be buying a license, probably. But the insight in this article isn't very new at all.

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> Reading things like this, i sometimes worry that > the HN-circling web crowd is reinventing things > that others invented just a few years ago.

The difference in this case is that the HN web crowd are targeting their fellow programmers, and not the "Enterprise" crowd.

I've been following the DSL tooling scene, and it's horrible. Think closed source, expensive and targeted at the Enterprise (or specific engineering disciplines).

The community is full of MDA (model-driven-architecture) types: too often is the focus on increasing complexity (for ego boosting / job security) instead of simplicity and accessibility.

The HN crowd are pretty much the polar opposite: the focus is on simplicity and scale. Sharing knowledge, instead of locking it up for fun and "profit".

That's why I like it here :)

> The community is full of MDA (model-driven-architecture) types: too often is the focus on increasing complexity (for ego boosting / job security) instead of simplicity and accessibility. > .. instead of locking it up for fun and "profit".

still, if you ignore the MDA and executable uml silliness, there's quite a few ideas that can be picked from that closed space, imo.

> still, if you ignore the MDA and executable uml silliness, there's quite a few ideas that can be picked from that closed space, imo.

Thats what Light Table does, isn't it? If not it will at least allow you to implement these ideas in a simple way.

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