Quantum programming 2.0: a focus on intent, not gates
When I was a kid, I imagined a computer with just one big green button labeled “DWIM”. Pressing this “Do What I Mean” button would cause the computer to do exactly that: do what I wanted it to. While we are not there yet, a rapid transition is happening from low-level quantum programming to higher-level methods of expressing the intent.
We’ve seen this process play out in electronic circuit design. Consider a simple electronic circuit: a 4-bit binary counter. How would you prefer to design it? Option 1 (see the figure below) shows this counter implemented with discrete gates. Option 2 shows a version of this counter using VHDL — a high-level design language, using a pre-written building block.
What if instead of a 4-bit counter you needed to design the 32-bit version?
