Ask HN: Visual languages for ocasional programming

2 points·gjvnq··4 comments

Are there any studies or articles about the usage of visual programming languages for ocasional programming?

Think: a buissiness person writing a form validation logic in a scratch-like language.

Visual programming, then called CASE (computer aided software engineering) was a big deal in the 90's but the consensus today seems to be that, once you're past toy problems, "visual" blocks made the task more difficult. The hard part of programming isn't writing the language text, it's figuring out the logic and deciding how to solve the problem. Visual tools don't make that easier and there's some evidence that they actually make it harder (because you have to conform to the way the tool works instead of just coding directly.)

I was thinking a bot might be useful.

BOT:What would you like to do today?

create a lead form for our website.

BOT: Why? Just kidding...Would you like to see some examples of lead forms?

No.

BOT: ok...What fields you like to add to the form from my library?

Name, address, do you like sushi?

BOT: Would you like to split Name into first and last name?

yes.

BOT: ok.. I have a form with first name, last name, address and do you like sushi? would you like to see the form?

The humor might be a bit much. Also, recommendation could get tricky.

For me at least, chatbots combine all the problems of using computers with the problems of talking to someone who has terrible short term memory.

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