The Interactive Playground

On top of this, Apple has added the “interactive playground,” a way of viewing the results of a piece of code as you type it. Pollak says it reminds him of the work that ex-Apple designer Bret Victor has done with the Javascript language, trying to make it a more visual endeavor. And Larson compares it to the new Wolfram programming language designed by respected scientist and technologist Stephen Wolfram. Andrew Stone, an independent Apple developer living in New Mexico, calls it “absolutely amazing.”

This is the wild card. Depending how well it works, Pollak says, the playground could push mainstream programming in a new direction, providing a more intuitive means of building code. “This isn’t necessarily an Apple invention, but it is something that has been bubbling up over the last few years,” he explains.

via Why Coders Are Going Nuts Over Apple’s New Programming Language | WIRED.