Re:Visual Programming Doesn’t Suck
by mimixco on Wednesday January 30, 2019 @09:46AM
(#19035381)
You've made my point... All languages compile to assembly so every visual editor is just an IDE for a text-based language -- the one actually run by the computer.
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That's not what I said at all. I said that Scratch is akin to writing your words on pieces of paper and then arranging them into sentences, instead of writing them as individual letters. Its a text editor that represents words and expressions as draggable boxes instead of giving you a freeform text input. You seem to be saying that since everything is essentially a turing machine, all languages are basically just an IDE for programming a turing machine.
Having a language compile to C (as many languages do) does not at all mean that writing in that language is the same as writing in C and that the compiler is essentially just an IDE or for C. Languages, visual or textual, encourage us to think in a certain way. Even though a visual language compiles down to the same thing as a textual language does not necessarily make them equivalent and certainly doesn't say anything about the kinds of problems they help you solve or the type of thinking that they encourage.