You can't easily search / grep etc. an IR, unless you use some kind of reverse translator. Readable source files have their benefits in being simple in that sense.

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marssaxman 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Imagine having to write a new diff tool for each language!

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kesor 4 days ago | parent [-]

You don't need a special grep for every language, you just need a tool that translates the mini version into the formatted version and back. Then you chain the tools, just like anything else in UNIX.

	▲	marssaxman 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Seems reasonable. Since you're likely to perform this translation more than once for any given file, it seems like it would be practical to cache the translated output, perhaps as a file on disk.

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eviks 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> unless you use some kind of reverse translator

Would a few decades help in universally having such a translator in all the tools?

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account42 4 days ago | parent [-]

In all the tools? No, you'd need an infinite amount of time for that.

	▲	eviks 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		The tools didn't require an infinite amount of time to write, why would it take infinity to change a format??? (but no not all the tools, just all the ones that are used)