📚 Instadeq Reading List: May 2021 ✍️ Notation as a Tool of Thought 💭 How can we develop transformative tools for thought? 👩‍🎨 Design Discipline Versus Design Science https://instadeq.com/blog/posts/instadeq-reading-list-may-2021/

Notation Builder ==> PEG ==> Ohm-Editor (https://ohmlang.github.io/editor/ and https://github.com/harc/ohm) (textual notation only) (Notation == light-weight DSL)

PEGs are good fun. Much more intuitive than more traditional grammars.

FYI - IMO, Ohm-editor, and Ohm-JS, are to PEG as grep and perl were to REGEX. (Subtle difference, but much more usable result). PEG is great for compiler-building and for DSL-building. Ohm-editor, though, enables notation-building. I love PEG, but, I expect that I will never go back to using PEG again. Using PEG is like accepting 2nd best after having tasted the Ohm-editor.

@guitarvydas could you go into a bit more detail on notation building? It's not clear to me how it differs from a DSL building.

short version: Notation vs. DSL is (1) mindset and (2) technology. (1) Mindset: Allow for change. Write code that writes code. Syntax is cheap. (2) Technology - compiler voodoo vs. cheap-to-use tool. REGEX used to be compiler voodoo, now it’s easy. PEG is still saddled with compiler-ish baggage. Ohm-Editor crystallizes just how cheap syntax is. (1): Treat existing languages as “assembler”. Python, JS, WASM, Lisp, etc. are but “assembly language” for new-breed Notations. further reading: What If Making a Compiler Was Easy? https://guitarvydas.github.io/2021/04/26/What-If-Making-A-Compiler-Was-Easy.html one example: Glue https://guitarvydas.github.io/2021/04/11/Glue-Tool.html long version: I would be quite happy to discuss this further and to post links to my thoughts about: SCNs, PEG, Ohm-JS, Toolbox Languages, FDD (Failure-Driven Development), DaS (Diagrams as Syntax), and so on.