Longer than that --- I would argue it goes back to Herman Hesse's _The Glass Bead Game_ (originally published as Magister Ludi) --- but Hesse seems to have gone

Longer than that --- I would argue it goes back to Herman Hesse's _The Glass Bead Game_ (originally published as Magister Ludi) --- but Hesse seems to have gone out of style. That said, I keep trying various ones, and will keep hoping that someday someone will make a graphical tool able to make a GUI program. Nodezator seems promising.