Graphical Programming Language

Question

In control engineering or instrumentation, I see Simulink or LabVIEW(G) is pretty popular. In ESL design, I see that Agilent SystemVue is gaining some popularity.

If you see the well established compiler theroy, almost 100% is about the textual language. But how about the graphical language?

Is there any noticable research or discussion about the graphical programming language? In terms of

Theory about Graphical Language - syntactic/semantic analysis and whatever relevant
expressiveness (Actually, I asked a question about it at SO - What do you mean by the expressiveness of a programming language?)
Possibility of the Graphical language
...

Or what do you think about the Graphical Programming Language?

Lots of related questions - do a google search for "site:stackoverflow.com graphical programming language". And if you are asking "what do you think", this should be community wiki. — , Mar 11 '10 at 18:34
I wanted to learn more about the research side point of view. — prosseek, Mar 12 '10 at 01:23

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 16 '11 at 19:37

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DRAKON is basically a flowchart optimized for readability.

http://drakon-editor.sourceforge.net/DRAKON.pdf

There are editors that can generate source code in C, C++, Python and Tcl.

For example: http://drakon-editor.sourceforge.net/python/python.html

answered Dec 16 '11 at 19:37

Stepan Mitkin

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score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 12 '10 at 09:53

I heard about one such language called DRAKON. It was developed for the Buran space project and now it seems to rebirth (language, not Buran =)). The only problem is that the most of materials about this language is in Russian. I'll give you some links anyway:

Article in Russian Wikipedia.
OberonCore forum DRAKON subsection in Russian.
DRAKON + Oberon = DRON visual programming language in English.

Dave Everitt · Answer 3 · 2010-03-12T09:34:02.137

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From a slightly different angle, this is in issue tackled in the interfaces for graphical programming tools for creative use, such as MaxMSP and Isadora - it might be useful to see how they handle the issues involved.

edited Mar 12 '10 at 09:34

answered Mar 11 '10 at 19:00

Dave Everitt

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...and today I stumbled across 'Vision' for Python: http://mgltools.scripps.edu/packages/vision – Dave Everitt Mar 16 '10 at 22:55

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 11 '10 at 20:01

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Wouldn't know anything about theory, but Lego MindStorms has a great graphical programming environment for programming the NXT robot toolkit (based on LabView components) that is extremely fun to use.

For kids it seems to be very easy environment in which to learn how to program by for example tweaking the functionality of existing programs or following instructions. When English (or any other written language for that matter) is not all that well understood the graphical environment makes it much easier to use than any written textual language.

The graphical language is perhaps "simple" in the sense that there is only one loop construct, one switch construct and a set of "high" level functions but i find it fit for the purpose.

answered Mar 11 '10 at 20:01

aaspnas

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This is how I got into programming! – Callum Rogers Mar 11 '10 at 20:33
Yes!!! I wish there would have been something like this around when i started out (in the 80:s if you wonder), but i guess its never too late... – aaspnas Mar 12 '10 at 19:55
Well LabVIEW is >20 years old, so you could have picked it up in the 80s. – Ton Plomp May 19 '10 at 21:31

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 05 '12 at 09:12

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A little late but I can also recommend the IBM / Rational Rose Realtime (commercial). Be aware that it is something different than "Rational Rose".

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/awdtools/developer/technical/

answered Jun 05 '12 at 09:12

katzenversteher

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 19 '13 at 11:11

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http://nimotoons.com is a 100% graphical development language based on functional languages. it is from UPC and still under construction

answered Sep 19 '13 at 11:11

palomo valdes

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score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Dec 12 '15 at 01:26

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You should also try YAWL which has a pretty good background in workflow programming in a graphical way, you can see:

http://www.yawlfoundation.org/

See workflow patterns which is a really good theoretical basis, I think, to approach graphical programming.

edited Dec 12 '15 at 01:26

Josh Crozier

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answered Apr 25 '14 at 10:38

Myosis.sh

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 11 '10 at 18:44

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Prograph is pretty cool - it's a general purpose graphical programming language and it uses a data flow paradigm.

Graphical Programming Language

10 Answers10