Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
newscientist.com
Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
1–10 of 49 posts
Re: Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
#2About time!
Re: Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
#3Yet another headline totally unsupported by the original source.
Re: Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
#4May be a bit off topic. But I do notice that those people who are not tech-savvy or totally computer illiterate tend to use the term 'coder' a lot to refer to us who can program. Is there a subtle difference in meaning between a 'coder' and a 'programmer'? Or is just myself being a bit over-sensitive?
Re: Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
#5The essential difficulty in programming is not to do with syntax. That's just the first thing an "outsider" sees that makes it seem unapproachable. The programming-for-the-rest-of-us thing has been tried more than a few times. Outside of specialized domains, I don't think it has ever gone anywhere.
Re: Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
#6I don't think the audience for this exists. People with a mind capable of programming are also capable of learning syntax, especially since there are so many languages now with lightweight syntax. I fear these attempts shall remain confined to educational toys for kids, which are really cool, but I don't see them used widely in schools.
Re: Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
#7I think that exploring alternative ways of creating programs is an excellent worthwhile activity. But while it might "open up" programming as discipline for _some_ people that would otherwise not do it, it doesn't follow that "everyone" will be able to program.
LabVIEW is an example of a visual programming language that has been around for 20+ years. It is very popular in manufacturing test and laboratory applications. It was supposed to make certain kinds of programming accessible to non-programmers. Did it do that? To some extent, yes. However to do anything even remotely large or complex with it you're still stuck with the same old problems of software development that the general public sucks at. The best LabVIEW "programmers" _are_ "programmers".
Re: Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
#8Because since everyone can hold a pencil or paint brush, everyone can be an artist!
That's obviously true, but the emphasis must still be on the "can". There's nothing stopping you, but there never was. The difficulty in programming is not writing words, it's understanding what the machine can do and how you can use that to do what people want to get done.
Re: Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
#9I don't think the audience for this exists. People with a mind capable of programming are also capable of learning syntax, especially since there are so many languages now with lightweight syntax. I fear these attempts shall remain confined to educational toys for kids, which are really cool, but I don't see them used widely in schools.
I'm a programmer. I started learning syntax as a kid. I write code all the time. I adapt to new language concepts and syntax. I can use vim effectively. I can tolerate an IDE.
I still cannot get ideas out of my head and into the computer as fast as I "need" to. I believe something graphical, visual, or the like is going the right direction. I want graphical touch programming (not typing syntax) for organizing logic into programs but I need the power to manipulate details.
To me, it's not a question of ability to learn syntax, it's about speed- how fast can I get this great new idea into an app? I believe ultimately it will be by manipulating objects on a touchscreen or in some 3D holographic thing.
Re: Visual programming means anyone can be a coder
#10May be a bit off topic. But I do notice that those people who are not tech-savvy or totally computer illiterate tend to use the term 'coder' a lot to refer to us who can program. Is there a subtle difference in meaning between a 'coder' and a 'programmer'? Or is just myself being a bit over-sensitive?
Perhaps people see "coder" as a larger term encompassing programmers (where "program" would be an application), scripters (things like javascript, php, python) and maybe hackers? I'm not sure.