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It's interesting that there appear to be two main ideas: text coding but with less typing and more syntax highlighting (Squeak), and "draw a network" (LabView,

It's interesting that there appear to be two main ideas: text coding but with less typing and more syntax highlighting (Squeak), and "draw a network" (LabView, Pure Data).

seanmcdirmid 13y ago
There are actually more than a few themes: * Structured editing environments beginning with the Cornell Program Synthesizer [1] and including environments like Alice Pascal [2], which introduced code completion (I think). You could even include Scratch in this area, though it might be more about rules. * Data flow languages as you mentioned * Direct manipulation environments (e.g. Morphic) * Spreadsheet environments (e.g. Forms/3 [3], Excel, AgentSheets [4]) * By demonstration (e.g. Chimera [5]) * Rule-based systems (e.g. KidSym [6], Kodu [7], ToonTalk [8]) * ... some of the more unique systems based on other paradigms ... [1] http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~fischer/papers/synthesizer.pdf http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~fischer/papers/synthesizer.pdf [2] http://www.templetons.com/brad/alice.html http://www.templetons.com/brad/alice.html [3] http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~burnett/Forms3/forms3.html http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~burnett/Forms3/forms3.html [4] http://www.agentsheets.com/ http://www.agentsheets.com/ [5] http://kurlander.net/DJ/Projects/Chimera/resources.html http://kurlander.net/DJ/Projects/Chimera/resources.html [6] http://www.sigchi.org/chi95/proceedings/papers/ac1bdy.htm http://www.sigchi.org/chi95/proceedings/papers/ac1bdy.htm [7] http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/ [8] http://www.toontalk.com/ http://www.toontalk.com/
marcosdumay 13y ago
There are a few that use graphs and time lines to actually apply visual elements to programming. Those may be good for something. For the ones that simply replace text with flow, and aren't aimed at small children, I only have pity.

It's interesting that there appear to be two main ideas: text coding but with less typing and more syntax highlighting (Squeak), and "draw a network" (LabView, Pure Data).

seanmcdirmid 13y ago

There are actually more than a few themes: * Structured editing environments beginning with the Cornell Program Synthesizer [1] and including environments like Alice Pascal [2], which introduced code completion (I think). You could even include Scratch in this area, though it might be more about rules. * Data flow languages as you mentioned * Direct manipulation environments (e.g. Morphic) * Spreadsheet environments (e.g. Forms/3 [3], Excel, AgentSheets [4]) * By demonstration (e.g. Chimera [5]) * Rule-based systems (e.g. KidSym [6], Kodu [7], ToonTalk [8]) * ... some of the more unique systems based on other paradigms ... [1] http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~fischer/papers/synthesizer.pdf http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~fischer/papers/synthesizer.pdf [2] http://www.templetons.com/brad/alice.html http://www.templetons.com/brad/alice.html [3] http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~burnett/Forms3/forms3.html http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~burnett/Forms3/forms3.html [4] http://www.agentsheets.com/ http://www.agentsheets.com/ [5] http://kurlander.net/DJ/Projects/Chimera/resources.html http://kurlander.net/DJ/Projects/Chimera/resources.html [6] http://www.sigchi.org/chi95/proceedings/papers/ac1bdy.htm http://www.sigchi.org/chi95/proceedings/papers/ac1bdy.htm [7] http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/ [8] http://www.toontalk.com/ http://www.toontalk.com/

marcosdumay 13y ago

There are a few that use graphs and time lines to actually apply visual elements to programming. Those may be good for something. For the ones that simply replace text with flow, and aren't aimed at small children, I only have pity.