What can you stop imagining once an edit is visible?
Two programming environments and a notation editor let their users inspect the effect of an edit. Feedback reduces mental simulation without guaranteeing conceptual understanding.
Read on through a shared source
Can creators see the effect of an edit? →A notation tool and a programming environment both make an edit visible. Look for the precise gap each closes between an action and the result its author can inspect.How quickly can a programmer see a mistake? →Running tests on every file change shortens one feedback loop. Showing the changing behavior beside the edit shortens another. The signals tell the programmer different things.What if feedback arrived with the edit? →One talk traces a search for shorter feedback loops. The other shows what creators can discover when the result is continuously visible.
Compare the passages
if you make a change or you make a decision you need to see the effect of that immediatelySo I could literally watch the
data flow through my program....by making the arrow a subtle shade of blue? Do you know how hard that is to see?