Chris Granger (born 1985) is an American programmer and designer who created Light Table and Eve. His work explores how to make programming more immediate, visual, and accessible.
Microsoft and Visual Studio
Before Light Table, Granger worked at Microsoft on Visual Studio, giving him insight into how professional IDEs work—and what they could do better.
Light Table
In 2012, Granger launched Light Table on Kickstarter, raising over $316,000. The IDE demonstrated:
- Inline evaluation (see results next to code)
- Live programming (changes appear instantly)
- Connected editing (modify running programs)
- Novel documentation integration
Eve Programming Language
After Light Table, Granger developed Eve, an experimental programming language and environment aimed at making programming accessible to non-programmers. Eve explored:
- Visual programming concepts
- Literate programming
- Database-driven computation
- Natural language-like syntax
Influence
Granger’s ideas influenced:
- VS Code development (he consulted for Microsoft)
- Modern IDE features
- Live programming research
- Developer experience design
Philosophy
Granger advocates for:
- Reducing the gap between writing code and seeing results
- Making programming visual and immediate
- Questioning assumptions about how we program
- Designing for understanding, not just writing
Legacy
Granger demonstrated that the programming environment itself could be radically reimagined. His work inspired developers and researchers to explore new ways of interacting with code.