Computational DAGs ‒ Szymon Kaliski

Computational DAGs

Makefile triggers updates only to changed files (by timestamp)
```
main: main.o module1.o module2.o
    g++ main.o module1.o module2.o -o main
```
To build the file main, I need to first make sure that targets main.o, module1.o and module2.o are up to date; then I need to call the following command...

(...)

To be "up to date" means that the last-modified time of [output file] is newer than any of its prerequisites' last-modified times

— https://stackoverflow.com/a/4349717
React redraws UI based on state change, recalculating only what changed
- there's a tension between this approach, and immediate mode UI, where UI is drawn every frame, and there's no need to calculate diffs

Are there any incremental computation systems that treat inputs not as mutable cells, but model the whole system as a persistent data structure, and updates create a new, structure-sharing instance?

— https://mobile.twitter.com/MarijnJH/status/1191720489523318786

Connections are Usually Better than Taxonomies

this idea is also related to computational DAGs - building a graph of computation, instead of organising everything into a tree of objects

DAG and Tree Representations of Code

representing as a DAG (nodes and edges):
- this is a DAG:
```
+->B->E-+
|       |
A       +->F->G
|       |
+->C->D-+
```
  represented as a tree:
```
A
+ B
| + E
|   + F
|     + G
+ C
  + D
    + F
      + G
```
- DAGs can make describing relations simpler: F depends on E and D - this is used in Makefiles for example
- node-and-edge languages (VPLs) are DAGs describing computations - they are best modeled with streams, event emitters, etc.

VPL

Computational DAGs

Protoboard

Nodes on the board can hold internal state, which other nodes can react to, forming a computational DAG:

SDFSheets

SDFSheets is an experimental spreadsheet interface for working with Signed Distance Functions. It's a continuation of exploring my interests in SDFs (SDF-UI, hiccup-sdf), spreadsheet-like interfaces (Protoboard) and Computational DAGs.