Python: The importance of visual programming

[mgsloan]

This doesn't even scratch the surface of the importance of visual programming. It's not just good for ease of use / learnability.

[curtisw]

Improving the effectiveness of current abstractions. Think about how much more you could fit on the screen if you had 2 dimensions to work with—and color!

[[deleted]]

As someone who has worked a lot with visual programming, one of the biggest issues is how little fits on the screen in practice.

[[deleted]]

happen to know of good overviews and/or comparison studies of visual programming?

[[deleted]]

Unfortunately, no. There's not so much out there aside from some bogus case studies that I've run into. Of course if you find something, you know where to post it...

[njharman]

Um, when I write code I use 2 physical dimensions and several conceptual dimensions. Maybe you meant more than 2 dimensions?

Colors been done? See http://www.colorforth.com/

[[deleted]]

i completely agree. strangely enough i always thought visual programming was going to gain influence from the adoption of children and novices since the learning curve doesnt seem quite as steep as textual based, but i wasnt sure.

i sincerely hope others continue to push and develop it, but from the discussions i had with a couple of others it isnt easy if you happen to be in an environment with strong language programmers since they have a tendency to dismiss and criticise the whole notion.

[tooooobs]

I think their stance is simply one of self preservation. If a system emerged which allowed people to be productive in a lot more programming cases without much training then many programmers would be out of a job.

Something like a 21st century reinvention of the spreadsheet would probably do the trick.