This is not a criticism, I think there is a place for visual languages, and I hope somewhere out there in idea space is one we all could use. I'd love to code on my tablet with a stylus.
But personally I find these very hard to use. Scratch drove me insane, I couldn't work out which order things were getting executed, it was a real pain.
Despite this, non-programmers actually seem to like visual programming systems. So my question is, what aspect of programming is the visual system removing (or adding) that makes it appealing to non-programmers? The syntax is still there, the semantics are the same, all the usual variables, conditionals, loops, functions, etc, are there, just harder to read.
But something must be changing, or maybe it's just a perception thing? Or is it the removal of text? Or maybe it's the bricks, you can't accidentally plug something in the wrong place.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 12.9 ms ] threadBut personally I find these very hard to use. Scratch drove me insane, I couldn't work out which order things were getting executed, it was a real pain.
Despite this, non-programmers actually seem to like visual programming systems. So my question is, what aspect of programming is the visual system removing (or adding) that makes it appealing to non-programmers? The syntax is still there, the semantics are the same, all the usual variables, conditionals, loops, functions, etc, are there, just harder to read.
But something must be changing, or maybe it's just a perception thing? Or is it the removal of text? Or maybe it's the bricks, you can't accidentally plug something in the wrong place.