Loren noted that what my video of Pynk programming really demonstrates is that it takes me 1:23 to handwrite “eval(io.Ink.Strokes.ToString())”. Too true. I've been thinking a lot about how to evolve Pynk and, although my first priority is making the “just plain text” interactive console fully functional, the ultimate goal is to make a viable ink-based programming environment, and that's going to take some “outside the box” thinking.

This is what occurred to me on my walk this morning. Shark is an impressive new input technique from IBM:

This image shows some of the important features (short travel between related keys, button density) but not the most striking when it's used: gesture-based recognition (:50 screencast).

I plan on training myself with Shark for several hours and then timing my input against the TabletPC TIP. We'll see.

But it got me thinking of a Shark-like syntax-directed input pad for Pynk, combining keywords, in-scope variables, and perhaps even namespace-available classnames:

What do you think?

P.S. Iggy's recent post that “It's not about text input” is also apropos