Code Bubbles: Rethinking the User Interface Paradigm of Integrated Development Environments
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN keeps returning to it as the most convincing example of moving past file-based code editing, even though it never left prototype stage.
What it is
A short demo of Code Bubbles, an IDE interface built around editable code fragments in bubbles instead of files. It was a research prototype for Java development.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2011 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec stcredzero · 2013-11 · on “Pyret: A new programming language from the creators of Racket”
> Code folding in a IDE goes a long way to make this bearable. Code folding in IDEs is an indication that we are doing it wrong -- that is, we human beings are programming computers "wrong." I'm not saying that code folding is a symptom. I'm saying that code folding shows how primitive our means of managing code is. It's as if the mesopotamians somehow invented computers, and because of tradition, all code has to be written as cuneiform on wet clay tablets, then fired in ovens before being read. At least text files in directories are digital, but they are as static and behavior-less as clay tablets, and all of the important relationships therein are expressed as implicit correspondences whic
Strong rec zokier · 2022-01 · on “How do you visualize code?”
Code Bubbles (from 2010) is the most convincing code visualization tool that I can recall: [this video] Shame it never grew beyond a research prototype.
Cites Montagist · 2011-03 · on “The IDE must move onto the server”
Ditto on the java-applet comments - I was shocked. Haha. In all seriousness, though, people have mentioned this before but I don't think anyone's really tackled any underpinning reason why an IDE should be in "the cloud" (::cringe:: yea, I went there). If I think about it in terms of features such a setup could provide - cohesiveness btwn. client & serverside testing, development statistics in real-time, and highly integrated documentation & comm. - then perhaps it's kind of sexy. Seamless/buil-in pair-programming would seal the deal. It would be pretty awesome if it looked like Code Bubbles though...haha ( [this video] )
Cites nuopnu · 2017-06 · on “Apple Dylan IDE (2014)”
You are thinking of a structured editor. But as to the single feature you mentioned, see for example Code Bubbles: [this video]
Cites mhomde · 2017-12 · on “Never edit a method, always rewrite it?”
It's just a general thought I've been having. We're using text and files because it's the way things always have been. But it seems there should be benefits to perhaps move beyond that. Things like with more canonical representations of code, rather than arguing over coding standards (although it can still text-based rather than completely graphical). Ability to more easily see related code and flows. Manage the meaning of code rather than its text (not changing text but changing symbols when you refactor). There's been attempts to move in that this direction with things like code bubbles ( [this video] ) but yet there hasn't been an approach that's both visually attractive and offers enough bene
Cites swizzler · 2023-12 · on “Should you split that file?”
There is code bubbles. Early demo: [this video] current site (eclipse plugin for java projects?): [LINK] . Maybe also inspired Visual Studio debugger exploration. I haven't used it (but have wanted to)
Cites thomassmith65 · 2024-05 · on “An infinite canvas for code exploration”
Aha, so that's what happened to Code Bubbles. I saw this video about the project years ago, and always wondered. [this video]