Visual approaches are fundamentally limited by the expressiveness of visual constructs, and the available screen real-estate

3D modeling programs are a visual approach to 3D modeling without having to type the code for a box to render it on screen yourself. I don't have to learn DirectX or OpenGL to model a cube. I can just hit the "Cube" button.

This example makes 3D modeling sound trivial, but we all know that 3D modeling programs are very powerful. Why should everyone have to learn OpenGL and such to create a 3d model? Even though these 3d modeling programs are created textually, we interact with them visually. It would be the same for a node based system in programming. There wouldn't be any additional limits by simply changing the way we interact with code (which is really what is happening).

So I'd have to disagree that Visual approaches are fundamentally limited in the way you describe.

I can just hit the "Cube" button.

And when you want a fish? I highly doubt there is a fish button. How about a giraffe button? When do you have too many buttons?

But regardless, that's not what I'm getting at. A 3D modelling package is a comprehensive tool for a particular type of task. What exactly is grep, in isolation? Grep doesn't really do anything interesting without all the magic of cat and pipes and awk and sed and cut and file descriptor redirection...

It's a ridiculous amount of work to try and squeeze all that functionality into a single visual tool. Current graphical shells (Windows Explorer, Gnome, Mac's Finder) still pale in comparison to the power and expressiveness of the textual Unix shells that significantly pre-date them.

When do you have too many buttons?

Any other model would be a manipulation of the primitive geometry. The thing is is that nodes can be made.

I understand that there is no getting away from text. I remember using the LittleBigPlanet logic system and quickly realizing that it needs textual info. Everything was visual. You had to visually represent numbers even. It was terrible.

On the other hand you have entirely textual systems (what we see in our IDE). A node based system would be a merger of the two systems.

Again, the NodeKit software I think is the best implementation of such a system.

I do think there are so many old technologies and techniques that are just now becoming relevant. Perhaps they were not practical then, but things have changed, perhaps they are relevant now?

For instance (I will not tell the whole story), but I came across the word "Geodesic Domes." Geodesic domes are old news, but with the current talk of sustainability, geodesic domes were the answer before such a conversation ever began (and still is if you ask me). So, I meet a man in a book store one day. He is an architect. I see what book he is buying and I also tell him about Google Sketchup (He never heard of it). I tell him about my current interest in Geodesic domes, and he says that the reason that they did not do well is because they were not practical. But I saw him pause, and I could tell he was thinking about how practical they could be today.

I like researching old techniques and drawing new innovations from them. You know the saying, "There is nothing new under the sun." So what will be, already was. We just re-invent along the way.

For instance, the Editorial app for iPad is re-defining text editing. And people who use the Markup language find it more powerful than all the software they use on their PCs. An iPad app more powerful than a desktop app? Who would have thought it was possible?

Technology is training visual learners, why not make programming visual? Sounds like a good investment if you ask me. Sounds practical also.

I hadn't see this post right here on Gamedev!

http://www.gamedev.net/page/community/iotd/index.html/_/flowlab-r307

I presume you have also run across NoFlo?

I presume you have also run across NoFlo?

Haha, few seconds in, "this IS the future."

I haven't seen this one, but I see people are already thinking this way, and that is good. It just sorta hit me though, after using the Gamepress app that this is the way programming should go. And this startup has the right idea.

Nice post swiftcoder. Thanks.