Re:Ask HN: Why does visual programming suck?
by bzalasky on Monday June 05, 2017 @10:17AM
(#14487742)
Perhaps creating niche visual DSLs is a more viable approach to developing visual programming environments than to focus on creating a general purpose programming environment.
It'd be interesting to see if there are any existing solutions in other domains.
A few remarks off the the top off my head:
1) Visually, it reminds me of electrical diagrams, perhaps taking it one or two steps up the ladder of abstraction. I can see how it might be an appealing notation for someone trained in electrical engineering, which may explain its usage in cars. It's really interesting how different "cultures" find different solutions to similar problems.
2) Still, and this may be unfair since I only glanced over it for a few minutes, it strikes me as more of a niche thing than as something that I'd describe as a general purpose language. It seems fixed at a certain level of abstraction. Probably just the right level of abstraction for configuring your car firmware, but impractical for authoring a complex piece of desktop software.
Maybe the future will prove me wrong :)