HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

And MacOS and Windows and and...

It's the "worse is better" approach or whatever that is called that set the 'not-quite-field' (thank you AK for this) back to where it started. To me it feels like we are in a hamster wheel of constant reinvention rather than using the software technologies of the 70ies (mainly from Xerox Parc) as a stepping stone. And whenever the methodologies break down we cry for the next framework/language/hardware platform to solve everything.

I for one would love to see a refresh about what is happening to OMeta and its family of technologies developed at Viewpoint [1]. Is this still ongoing?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbwOPzxuJ0s

⬐ jgon

If you're looking for a continuation of OMeta check out what Alan's previous research lab CDG (I believe it is largely being folded into HARC) is working on with ohm: https://github.com/cdglabs/ohm

⬐ m_mueller

Thank you!

⬐ blihp

Here's a presentation, while chronologically earlier, that is specifically about the Viewpoints STEPS project which includes a good segment on OMeta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAT4iewOHDs

As jgon mentioned, Alex (the author of OMeta) continues work on Ohm, his successor to OMeta. Also, various flavors of OMeta implementations live on in Smalltalk, Lisp, Javascript etc. Recently VPRI released their final annual report to the NSF publicly with indications that work is ongoing. So there are at least pockets of interest and activity.

⬐ m_mueller

That's actually the presentation I had in mind but I couldn't find it anymore. Searching with Alan Kay as a keyword is not a big help xD. Thank you for linking it. I'd love to play around with this stuff.

⬐ blihp

I can probably point you in the right direction for OMeta... what's you're preferred dynamic language?

The other material is a bit tougher to come by as I don't believe Viewpoints has released a code snapshot of what they've been working on to date. There are bits and pieces in terms of code drops but mainly what they've released are the NSF annual reports and various papers discussing aspects of STEPS on the VPRI web site (i.e. http://vpri.org/html/writings.php)

⬐ m_mueller

OMeta's successor library has been linked here, so that's not a problem. IMO it's a shame that Professor Kay never fully adopted OSS. Their new way of doing a whole OS sure is inspirational - I could even see it as a very interesting basis as a successor to Linux.

You're thinking of Mother of All Demos. If you watch some interviews with Douglas Engelbart, the whole philosophy was to do away with the existing mediums of paper and video and embrace the new one possible only with computers, like wikis, simulations, etc. Instead we just put the old mediums on computers to make access more convenient.

Doug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeSgaJt27PM

Alan Kay addresses the matter https://youtu.be/BbwOPzxuJ0s?t=1h7m42s too. He worked on XEROX PARC, which inspired Steve Jobs to make the Mac.

Brett Victor also leans in that direction https://vimeo.com/115154289

The printed book is a good fit here because it's a single perspective, best absorbed linearly. The more important question to ask is why are we reading a single person's perspective these days? Where are his simulations? How are they different from previous author's simulations?

When people talk about complex systems, like battles, politics, etc. they're using simulations in their heads, which are only be described through words, maybe some edited videos. So to compare different author's perspectives we read their books and run a different, imprecise simulation in each of our heads. Why not just run a single precise simulation for each author?

Well, most of society only uses computers to edit text. Same text that could have been written centuries ago, but now more conveniently.

The possibilities of video have also been explored. I've watched many hours of good documentaries on the Battle of Waterloo. Also Gettysburg and many others. But a few plays of http://www.ultimategeneral.com explained things better. Also played the Total War series but the way large historical battles are represented there is a mess. It can only handle small battles of 1000 men believably.

⬐ gruseom

This talk is a mindblowing series of lessons on the history of our field and on what great technical management really is. It fills in some crucial historical details, like the relationship between ARPA and Xerox PARC. But the most interesting thing is the values that it conveys—basically, the technical values (and people) that gave us both the internet and personal computing. Considering the staggering importance of what was produced and how this stuff is not at all common practice, any window into it deserves attention.

⬐ copx

One of the most interesting and entertaining IT presentations I have ever watched.

It's mostly about Xerox PARC and the American pioneers of modern computing in general.