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Some IDEs end up being effectively doing this.

• vanderZwan 12y ago
  Right, but in that case the IDE evolved around the existing character-based programming language. What if we try it the other way around? Start by designing an elegant block language and then create a keyboard interface around it.
  • TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
    Did it? Look at tokenized FORTH, for instance. Now, admittedly there's not a whole lot of syntax there to begin with, but still. People tend to shy away from languages that don't have textual representations, and for good reasons. It's harder to share code, among other things. I think the best approach would be to come up with something that is human-readable and writable, but is optimized for the block approach. And I'd argue that some languages (lisp?) already fit this.
    • TeMPOraL 12y ago
      > And I'd argue that some languages (lisp?) already fit this. Yup. And with proper editing help like Paredit, you start to actually think in terms of moving tree nodes ("blocks") around instead of typing in text. With that, all you'd have to do is to start drawing colored boxes around the code instead of parens, and you'd have a decent, keyboard-operated "block language".