If anybody else is interested, here is a Web Numbr graph of the funding for Light Table over time: http://webnumbr.com/light-table-pledged (Sadly, I didn't think of setting this up until it was really far along).
As a donator in the Light Table Kickstarter, I'm surprised that its already been a year. You've done some great work on this, I'm currently using Light Table right now to do some light JS work. Keep it up!
There was a massive amount of excitement around Light Table when it was first demoed. I remember one or more pretty amazing videos. I don't have link(s) on-hand.
The tentative plan is to release a full beta around the turn of the year and have an official launch May of next year. As it stands currently, it will include all the things I've shown in the video for both JavaScript and Clojure, but should we continue to get more funding we can add even more.
I'm a web designer (PSD -> WordPress) and I started learning programming around the time Light Table was funded on KickStarter. It's been nice to see the project grow with my programming skills. Although I still don't feel like a decent programmer, it's nice to see what my small $15 investment has helped create. :)
So how is Chris (et al.) planning to make Light Table a sustainable business (e.g. "pay the bills").
It's great they have the kickstarter money but I haven't seen any announcements on them making this a product for sale. If anything, it appears they are doing the exact OPPOSITE and distancing themselves from the project all together.
Seconded. I am slightly disappointed by this announcement. I backed LightTable because I really wanted to see an alternative to Emacs (for Clojure development). But I was hoping that by raising funding the team would be able to actually implement the tool. The hard parts. The parts that many projects never get around to implementing, because there is no funding.
I certainly didn't expect the team would be "revisiting some of the foundational ideas of computing" so soon.
LightTable right now is a proof of concept. A very good one, but still — it has a long way to go until it can become an everyday tool. Let's not leave it hanging there. If you continue on this path, you will leave behind a trail of half-baked tools, each one a great concept, but none of them actually useful.
This is very good to know, and something that I was not at all aware of -- I started using Clojure and thus Light Table after the Kickstarter had ended. For some reason I just assumed Light Table had raised a huge amount, and for that I apologize.
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