A Hacker News poster shared a thought experiment asking what declarative programming might feel like for the physical world. The premise draws on a familiar idea from software, such as SQL, where users declare the desired result and the execution engine works out how to produce it.
Without access to a physical actuator, the author mocked up the concept in software. Users demonstrate the desired effect, and the system works out how to achieve it. In the example, a user wants to ring a bell and has a crank available. The system identifies a way to connect the two. If obstacles are added, a constraint solver running behind the scenes finds a way around them.
The author argues the approach is interesting because it lets people reason about problems at a higher level of abstraction, leaving the system to figure out the mechanics needed to produce the intended effect.
The post invited reactions, feedback, and ideas for extending the concept. At the time of capture it had 26 points and 3 comments.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing