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Yeah like there's 20 years of programming language research that studies exactly what this person is talking about. Graphical programming languages, removing b

Yeah like there's 20 years of programming language research that studies exactly what this person is talking about. Graphical programming languages, removing barriers to learning, etc. They've been chugging away for decades and visual programming, Blender, Blueprints, Scratch, etc are all we got out of it. Does the article writer just think research doesn't exist? That CS sprouted from existence fully formed as a web browsing experience?

naavis 6y ago
> Yeah like there's 20 years of programming language research that studies exactly what this person is talking about. More like 50 years. :)
- monetus 6y ago
  Relevant alan kay video from 1968 https://youtu.be/QQhVQ1UG6aM https://youtu.be/QQhVQ1UG6aM
  - alickz 6y ago
    That is extremely impressive. I'm not sure I want to code like that, but damn is it impressive.
    - phkahler 6y ago
      Everything looks better on a vector display. :-)
  - Ygg2 6y ago
    That's impressive demo. But graphical representation literally have an extra dimension of problems. Namely navigation and serialization.
azinman2 6y ago
Nothing in the article said “why hasn’t this been researched by the CS community?” The author was complaining about the state of things, and I don’t disagree. Programming is too hard. Error messages are always funky and assume expertise. And perhaps the node folks should better understand that beginners are often a target of their product and should find ways to make it more accessible to them. Blueprints and Scratch are widely used and are important tools. Your comment sounds very dismissive, and if you meant to be, then I think you’re unaware of their impact and reach. That said I don’t fully buy the author’s exact argument: - node.js local install IS for a traditional programming environment on the CLI - you don’t need node built in when you have the browser - plenty of web IDEs exist that do as the author wishes… run node code in the browser while also editing it.

naavis 6y ago

> Yeah like there's 20 years of programming language research that studies exactly what this person is talking about. More like 50 years. :)

monetus 6y ago
Relevant alan kay video from 1968 https://youtu.be/QQhVQ1UG6aM https://youtu.be/QQhVQ1UG6aM
- alickz 6y ago
  That is extremely impressive. I'm not sure I want to code like that, but damn is it impressive.
  - phkahler 6y ago
    Everything looks better on a vector display. :-)
- Ygg2 6y ago
  That's impressive demo. But graphical representation literally have an extra dimension of problems. Namely navigation and serialization.

azinman2 6y ago

Nothing in the article said “why hasn’t this been researched by the CS community?” The author was complaining about the state of things, and I don’t disagree. Programming is too hard. Error messages are always funky and assume expertise. And perhaps the node folks should better understand that beginners are often a target of their product and should find ways to make it more accessible to them. Blueprints and Scratch are widely used and are important tools. Your comment sounds very dismissive, and if you meant to be, then I think you’re unaware of their impact and reach. That said I don’t fully buy the author’s exact argument: - node.js local install IS for a traditional programming environment on the CLI - you don’t need node built in when you have the browser - plenty of web IDEs exist that do as the author wishes… run node code in the browser while also editing it.