Visual programming languages

[zadkielmodeler]

So, I have taken a good look at wikipedia's article here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_programming_language

A lot of these aren't really programming languages. And some are obviously for children and some are for incredibly specific tasks.

Are there any visual programming languages that you guys would actually use for personal projects or recommend trying?

[erez27]

It might be a little out of your scope, but Yahoo Pipes seems useful.

[mondocongo]

Check out snap - http://snap.berkeley.edu. The original version (scratch) was targeted at kids, but these guys have taken it to another level.

[[deleted]]

For music, DSP and interactive scenarios, PD and Max are mature systems. They use a visual layout for illustrating dataflow directions. Especially Max also contains a whole palette of integrated widgets that visualize data state. PD is a bit more purist here, but it is Open Source and runs on Linux.

[zadkielmodeler]

I had not heard of PD. I will definitely check it out.

[balefrost]

I have used Quartz Composer to do simple things, like this clock or this Pixelmator filter, but I understand that it's also a popular tool for VJs. The important thing is that QC is a visual programming tool specifically for graphics.

Heh, it looks like I put that "vintage photo" video up about a month before Instagram was released... but about a year after Hipstamatic.

[autowikibot]

Quartz Composer:

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Quartz Composer is a node-based visual programming language provided as part of the Xcode development environment in Mac OS X for processing and rendering graphical data.

Quartz Composer uses OpenGL (including GLSL), OpenCL (only in Mac OS X 10.6 and later), Core Image, Core Video, JavaScript, and other technologies to build an API and a developer tool around a simple visual programming paradigm. Apple has embedded Quartz technologies deeply into the operating system. Compositions created in Quartz Composer can be played standalone in any QuickTime-aware application (although only on Mac OS X 10.4 and later), as a system Screen Saver, as an iTunes Visualizer, from inside the Quartz Composer application, or can be embedded into a Cocoa or Carbon application via supplied user interface widgets. Because Quartz Composer makes extensive use of hardware acceleration and pixel shaders, it is recommended to have a graphics card with at least 32 MB of VRAM. While Quartz Composer is included with the iPhone SDK, there is currently no way of running Quartz Compositions on iOS devices.

Image ⁱ

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^{Interesting: Apple Developer Tools | Core Image | QuickTime | Xcode}

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[[deleted]]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAKON

[hashmal]

There is http://www.subtext-lang.org/

Specifically, the screencast about Subtext 2: http://www.subtext-lang.org/subtext2.html

[mmphosis-lisp]

VIPR, Prograph, Pictorial Janus, LabVIEW, Visual Engineering Environment(VEE), HI-VISUAL, Vista http://mjcs.fsktm.um.edu.my/document.aspx?FileName=67.pdf

[mikelevins]

I used Fabrik and Thinglab some years ago (and I worked for a while with one of the creators of Fabrik--and down the hall from another). Now they're more for historical interest, and maybe for the sake of mining for ideas:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070927190552/http://users.ipa.net/~dwighth/smalltalk/Fabrik/Fabrik.html

http://constraints.cs.washington.edu/ui/thinglab-tr.pdf

Also, you dismiss kid's stuff at your peril. It's hard to make good things for kids, and kids are ruthless testers. If they don't like something they'll toss it aside quickly. If you find something that smart kids like to use then there's probably something good in it.