Re:Microsoft MakeCode
by seanmcdirmid on Wednesday January 17, 2018 @09:06PM
(#16174038)
Just a correction: you are writing code with visual programming, its just visual code instead of textual code. You haven't gotten rid of code.
VPLs are great for people who aren't programmers and don't wan to be programmers; e.g. Facebook designers using Quartz Composer or Orgami, game designers using Unreal blueprints, Blender, and so on.
Re:Microsoft MakeCode
by anonytrary on Thursday January 18, 2018 @06:21AM
(#16176272)
To be very pedantic, the context makes it clear I'm using "code" as shorthand to refer only to written programs.
True, visual code may well be a first class citizen in programming. As of today, there are still programs people would not write visually. It's a tool for simple procedural work, which could change as the ergonomics get even better.
Re:Microsoft MakeCode
by seanmcdirmid on Thursday January 18, 2018 @12:51PM
(#16179397)
There are codeless visual programming methods, like Pygmalion and Sketchpad, among others. So we shouldn't get confused with them.
Re:Microsoft MakeCode
by anonytrary on Friday January 19, 2018 @12:02AM
(#16184242)
Visual programming: Drag and drop nodes and edges to form a control-flow/compute graph.
Code: Python, JS, C++, etc.
I don't think this is confusing for our readers at all.
Was it Lego Mindstorms? Man I had so much fun with that as a kid. I would totally recommend it for learning to code too.
Re:Microsoft MakeCode
by anonytrary on Thursday January 18, 2018 @06:19AM
(#16176264)
Yep, that's the one.
Visual coding is huge among people who aren't technical. I first got into "programming" when I was 9, through lego robots, they had a visual control flow thingy, basically visual coding. I think that must have helped me understand programming and its implications much faster when I got into college.
Visual programming is not ergonomic enough to justify never writing code again. It will remain a paramount educational tool, and a great tool for designers and game developers. I believe people do use visual programming for Unreal projects (Unity, maybe?), textures, effects, etc.
I don't think it is aesthetic enough right now to get the masses into it. Visual programming will eventually be important in getting people to do more complex things on the web (think IFTTT).