Bret Victor
Asks why we still program by editing dead text, and builds the case for live, humane tools.
Bret Victor is an American interface designer and researcher who has become the sharpest contemporary voice asking why we still program the way we do. In talks like Inventing on Principle he argues that creators need an immediate connection to what they make — change the code and see the result now, not after a compile-and-run cycle. This is the heart of live programming and direct manipulation.
His writing and his lab Dynamicland push past the glass rectangle toward computing you can inhabit physically, together, in a room. The essay the future was yesterday follows his challenge to the field. He represents the future of programming.