Mission
SymADE (Symbolic Adaptable Development Environment) is an open-source
IDE and implementation of SOP (Semantic-oriented programming) paradigm.
In SOP a program is edited and stored as a tree of semantic nodes (meanings).
The tree is edited by structural editor, and programmers can edit either the semantic tree directly or a projection
of the semantic tree onto syntax tree. There may be multiple projections of the same tree, and they can be
rendered on the screen as reach text, as UML diagrams and so on.
Semantic meanings are completely user-defined. This allows to use SymADE for creating and editing new domain-specific
languages, modify existing languages, use in the same pice of code a mix of multiple languages.
SOP is common in spirit with IP and
MPS. The main difference is that they define and edit syntax trees, but in
SOP you create and edit semantic trees. This gives an unbound possibility for automating code writing, i.e. the
actual code can be written by computer based on dialog interaction with programmers. And of cause, the SymADE project
is open-source, unlike proprietary IP and MPS development environments.
The higher automation of code writing will allow to create more complex programs without increasing the amount of
abstraction layers - because the computer, not programmers, will take care of the code complexity. This will allow to write
more complex programs without increasing resource requirements (CPU speed and memory size).
SymADE is currently in an alpha (demo, proof-of-concept) stage of implementation. It's written in a java-like language
and currently has only java backend (JVM), but alternative backends are planned (.NET, LLVM and so on).
I'm sure that the ability to write more complex programs without increasing requirements for CPU and memory will be very
important and interesting when the Moor's law (of exponential grows of microchips' speed and dencity) will end.
This end was estimated to occur in 10-15 years, but actually can happen much earlier, just because of the global economic crisis.
Related resources
