I think part of the problem is that coding projects can get really big - like millions of lines of code big. Not making a huge mess of things at that scale is a

I think part of the problem is that coding projects can get really big - like millions of lines of code big. Not making a huge mess of things at that scale is always going to be difficult, but the approach of text-based files with version control, where everyone can bring their favorite editors and tools, seems to work better than everything else we've tried so far. Also, code being text means you can run other code on your own code to check, lint, refactor etc. Visual programming - that almost always locks you into a particular visual editor - is unlikely to work at that scale, even with a really well thought out editor. Visual tools are great for visual tasks (such as image editing) or for things like making ER diagrams of your database schema, but I think that the visual approach is inherently limited when it comes to coding functionality. Even for making GUIs, there are tradeoffs involved. I can see applications for helping non-programmers to put together comparatively simple systems, like the excel example mentioned. I don't think it will replace my day job any time soon.