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Programmers often are too focused on textual programming languages, missing out the immense improvements in visual tools, making them production ready for compl

by petra 9y ago

Programmers often are too focused on textual programming languages, missing out the immense improvements in visual tools, making them production ready for complex domains(for example , the recent low-code tools trend for app/site development among enterprises. And yes the right visual tools can even scale to large complex programs well, maybe with 90% visual "code" and 10% textual "code"). And clearly, visual tools are much more accessible for the amateur developer and domain expert. And if you want to learn about that field, and the future of much of programming(probably), i'm not sure HN is a good place to do so. I think Google will be much more helpful.

dukoid 9y ago
I haven't seen a graphical language that's well suited for "general purpose" programming yet, although there are certainly good examples for specific purposes. My experience with rolling my own (flowgrid.org): Too verbose, code entry too cumbersome compared to text -- even on touch devices...
- petra 9y ago
  Who says tools must be general purpose ? What's wrong with a set of domain specific tools(highly extensible with code) with a lot of advantages ,with some decent ways to tie them up(that might require code) ? Isn't it similar to framework based programming ,which is most of programming ?
  - dukoid 9y ago
    They tend to be more tricky to combine than frameworks.
  - Cthulhu_ 9y ago
    Those do exist, but like you said yourself, domain specific tooling. Can't extend that to general purpose (in this case, IoT). Closest thing in that sphere would be the Mindstorms editor (https://wcpsrobotics.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/programming.jpg https://wcpsrobotics.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/programming...).
    - petra 9y ago
      Actually the IOT might be domain specific(or somewhere in the middle). Thingworx has a very successful visual platform for the IOT. https://www.liveworx.com/downloads/exclusive-content/The-ThingWorx-Platform-101.pdf https://www.liveworx.com/downloads/exclusive-content/The-Thi...
deleted 9y ago
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by petra 9y ago

dukoid 9y ago

I haven't seen a graphical language that's well suited for "general purpose" programming yet, although there are certainly good examples for specific purposes. My experience with rolling my own (flowgrid.org): Too verbose, code entry too cumbersome compared to text -- even on touch devices...

petra 9y ago
Who says tools must be general purpose ? What's wrong with a set of domain specific tools(highly extensible with code) with a lot of advantages ,with some decent ways to tie them up(that might require code) ? Isn't it similar to framework based programming ,which is most of programming ?
- dukoid 9y ago
  They tend to be more tricky to combine than frameworks.
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago
  Those do exist, but like you said yourself, domain specific tooling. Can't extend that to general purpose (in this case, IoT). Closest thing in that sphere would be the Mindstorms editor (https://wcpsrobotics.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/programming.jpg https://wcpsrobotics.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/programming...).
  - petra 9y ago
    Actually the IOT might be domain specific(or somewhere in the middle). Thingworx has a very successful visual platform for the IOT. https://www.liveworx.com/downloads/exclusive-content/The-ThingWorx-Platform-101.pdf https://www.liveworx.com/downloads/exclusive-content/The-Thi...

deleted 9y ago

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