2D space is quite limited in arrangement I think (and with 3D you always have occlusion). There are very established graphical programming languages in the art

2D space is quite limited in arrangement I think (and with 3D you always have occlusion). There are very established graphical programming languages in the art-scene. They are easy to get in to, but become messy for complex projects. For the erst stuff think they are a bit like jupyter notebooks, but even better: everything compiles in real time and you can see it working. On the other hand it quickly just becomes a spaghetti mess.. For everything else you need things with a limited scope. A single state to track (workflows, conversations) or really basic logic and strong abstractions (mangling two APIs together). Beyond that you need a programmer anyways and his gain from a GUI is limited. Generally there are a few things hard to represent, e.g. abstracting and recycling code (writing functions), parallel processes, state and highly interconnected things. A few examples for the curious: For Visuals: - quartz composer (old by now) http://www.mactricksandtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/networked-quartz-composer-patches.png http://www.mactricksandtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/n... - touch designer (modern, very nice nesting, you can zoom in to groups): https://youtu.be/hbZjgHSCAPI?t=49 https://youtu.be/hbZjgHSCAPI?t=49 Music: Pure Data and maxMSP (not strictly for just for music): https://youtu.be/rTQgfhsQ7xo https://youtu.be/rTQgfhsQ7xo Bitwig Grid (very skeumorphic, yet one of the modern "modular" ones. I dig the look of the droopy bezier curves though): https://youtu.be/dNdhbHGeHPw https://youtu.be/dNdhbHGeHPw More recent and really interesting to me is "no-code" environments that are now gaining traction. Business logic: BPMN + Camunda (you still need to code everything in text, but you can shuffle the flow around afterwards): https://youtu.be/HxtZf5VD6lQ?t=625 https://youtu.be/HxtZf5VD6lQ?t=625 No-code API plugging: Appmixer: https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5a9d00dba5e9fa00010cb403/5c8b82a6e9c13e6c33e03b7a_AM-2019-Screenshot-2.png https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5a9d00dba5e9fa00010cb403/5c8... AI-assisted chatbots: Cognigy: https://youtu.be/QSJ-nTwjn-c?t=1525 https://youtu.be/QSJ-nTwjn-c?t=1525