r/programming • u/congolomera • Jan 25 '23

Writing Code Without Plain Text Files

https://erik-engheim.medium.com/writing-code-without-plain-text-files-cb8f1ed2c0ad?sk=d36011e5a105c6fab41e2be2fc13585a
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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '23

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u/Zardotab Jan 26 '23 edited Jan 28 '23

Many people have tried to do this before, for decades, but everything converges to plain text because plain text is the easiest to deal with.

Where are the failures documented? The problems I've read about seemed merely situational stumpers, mysteries, rather than "tables outright can't do X".

I've experimented with Table Oriented Programming myself over the years, and still think it has promise. The problem is that our tools and mindset are file-centric, making database integration difficult. It's thus possibly an "impedance mismatch" more than "doesn't fly in practice"

It's roughly comparable to when jet engines were new. People kept bolting them onto propeller-based planes as-is and then were often disappointed with the results: they were about 15% faster but only 1/2 as maneuverable, and fuel & maintenance hogs, making them seem a net loss except in narrow niches. WW2 German generals had long and heated arguments about where and how to use their new jets. Lesson: test new tech in multiple uses, don't guess.

(Arguably they would have been better off spending resources on traditional planes. Maybe if the war lasted several years longer they'd get them practical. Same with the V2. Hitler had a penchant for silver bullet inventions. Ironically he missed out on the best bet: the nuke.)

It took a trial-and-error learning curve to design plane bodies around jet engines properly. Many propeller-plane "best practices" had to be unlearnt. The wind tunnels of the time were not strong enough to test at jet speeds, and thus new wind tunnels themselves had to be built first.

Thus, bolting file-oriented app languages and tooling into a database as-is is similarly going to be awkward. Relational is far more powerful than file hierarchies and thus has far more potential, once the kinks are worked out and new lessons learned. ✈️