(I'm aware that such tools have existed and do exist. One could argue that they haven't quite nailed it and thus are not very widespread in use.)
I believe that day may be closer than you expect. I've seen all, and I mean all the components required to build such a practical programming system. They just were scattered around systems for widely different purposes, or buried in decades-old research projects that were too experimental and heavyweight for the machines available back then. (Victor's is certainly the closer to that vision, although it still misses several key components to make it practical and widespread; a close second is the Wolfram Language).
I have in mind a pet project to combine those partial tools in a way that I think would make a practical mostly-general-purpose programming language. Having some background in human-computer interaction, I think I'd be able to identify the most obvious roadblocks.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid my limited skills and time wouldn't allow my to expand the system beyond a simple proof of concept. If you're interested, I think I could compile a small recollection of my ruminations and put it in a presentable form, if only to inspire others and get some feedback on my approach. I don't know though if that would make for a good Hacker News submission, does this site accept links to personal blogs discussing pet projects?
I believe that day may be closer than you expect. I've seen all, and I mean all the components required to build such a practical programming system. They just were scattered around systems for widely different purposes, or buried in decades-old research projects that were too experimental and heavyweight for the machines available back then. (Victor's is certainly the closer to that vision, although it still misses several key components to make it practical and widespread; a close second is the Wolfram Language).
I have in mind a pet project to combine those partial tools in a way that I think would make a practical mostly-general-purpose programming language. Having some background in human-computer interaction, I think I'd be able to identify the most obvious roadblocks.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid my limited skills and time wouldn't allow my to expand the system beyond a simple proof of concept. If you're interested, I think I could compile a small recollection of my ruminations and put it in a presentable form, if only to inspire others and get some feedback on my approach. I don't know though if that would make for a good Hacker News submission, does this site accept links to personal blogs discussing pet projects?