Graphical Programming Language [closed]

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?

Answer 1

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

See also Marten.

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

Quartz Composer presents a graphical interface for constructing image composition workflows. (I think that would be considered a "programming language".)

Answer 7

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/

Answer 8

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

Answer 9

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

1. http://www.yawlfoundation.org/

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

Answer 10

You could try Cameleon: http://www.shinoe.org/cameleon which seems to be simple to use. Its written in C++ but can call any type of local or distant programs writen in any programming language.

It has a multi-scale approach and seems to be turing complete (this is a petri net extension).

sheers, Myosis.sh