The Wolfram Language is a very compelling Programming System. The power afforded to the user is tremendous. And it does away with much cruft accumulated in our programming tools. WL + WCloud demonstrates languages are Interfaces to Computing, not just abstract machine code.
Embracing the browser as both creation and deployment platforms reduces switching costs + major friction. Unfortunately lots of friction still exists, and it should be reduced for this to be in widespread use. Two major pain points:
Try-it Memetic Friction
Downloading + installing just to try is painful. Mathematica Online promises to fix this. But, creating accounts would still be painful. There should be one landing page where users can just try it with no friction. Click link -> type -> mind blown. This is also much more likely to be spread.
Some programs are created to be consumed by viewers. CDF is already leaps and bounds beyond others, but forcing a plugin install to viewers is a deal breaker for many (most?). People end up using js (d3, etc) instead. Solution: use emscripten or PNaCl to bring CDF to the web with no friction.
The Wolfram Language is a very compelling Programming System. The power afforded to the user is tremendous. And it does away with much cruft accumulated in our programming tools. WL + WCloud demonstrates languages are Interfaces to Computing, not just abstract machine code.
Embracing the browser as both creation and deployment platforms reduces switching costs + major friction. Unfortunately lots of friction still exists, and it should be reduced for this to be in widespread use. Two major pain points:
Try-it Memetic Friction
Downloading + installing just to try is painful. Mathematica Online promises to fix this. But, creating accounts would still be painful. There should be one landing page where users can just try it with no friction. Click link -> type -> mind blown. This is also much more likely to be spread.
Examples:
Plugin Output Friction
Some programs are created to be consumed by viewers. CDF is already leaps and bounds beyond others, but forcing a plugin install to viewers is a deal breaker for many (most?). People end up using js (d3, etc) instead. Solution: use emscripten or PNaCl to bring CDF to the web with no friction.