History of Visual Programming
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ScribdTranslationsHistory of Visual Programming
Uploaded by
ScribdTranslationsHistory of Visual Programming
Visual programming emerged in the early 1990s with the use of this language for
programming is due to the modern world, the information needs have
greatly increased in the daily lives of individuals as well as of the
organizations. This new need is being met with integration and
personal and corporate participation towards the network of networks, the Internet,
New programming paradigms are used for the creation of new
systems and creative information needs
The new information systems are costly in terms of time and resources, the
solution
Modern information systems require new tools and methodologies.
to quickly, economically, and efficiently solve information problems
posed by the organizations Even more the full potential of the hardware is not
fully utilized and there is a significant delay with the software and its
applications, generating what is known as the 'software crisis'
Visual programming is based on the use of visual languages (VPL). A
visual programming language can be defined as:
A programming language that uses a visual representation (such as graphics,
drawings, animations or icons, partially or completely).
A visual language manipulates visual information or supports visual interaction, or
allows programming with visual expressions.
A visual language is a set of spatial arrangements of text symbols and
graphics with a semantic interpretation that is used to communicate actions
in an environment.
LVPs are programming languages where visual techniques are used to
express relationships or transformations in information. For example, an object
visual that represents a process of addition (sum) takes two inputs and produces
an output. In a typical data flow LVP, the user simply selects
an input value and select an input port on the object to establish
a relationship between data and the process. The genesis of LPV came in 1975 with
David Canfield Smith's publication 'Pygmalion: A Creative Programming
Environment''. For example, Pygmalion incorporated a programming paradigm
based on icons where the created objects could be modified, and
connected together, with the defined features to perform
computations. Many modern LPVs use an icon-based approach
like deSmith. Pygmalion also made use of the concept of programming by
example, where the user shows the system how to perform a task in a
specific case and the system uses this information to generate a program the
which performs the task in general cases. Why do we insist on communicating with
computers using textual programming languages? Wouldn't it be better
communicate with computers using a representation that takes advantage of
our visual nature? Obviously, the authors of the languages of
visual programming (LPV) discusses that the answer to both questions is yes.
The main motivations for most research in LPV are:
Many people think and remember things in terms of pictures.
She relates to the world in an intrinsically graphic way and uses
images as a primary component of creative thinking
Furthermore, textual programming languages have proven to be somewhat
difficult for many creative and intelligent people to learn to use effectively.
The reduction or elimination of the need to translate visual ideas
Textual representations can help mitigate this issue of the curve.
of learning.
In addition, a variety of applications, including scientific visualization and the
interactive simulation lends itself well to visual development methods. An LPV
It is not an integrated development environment.
(the IDE). The difference is that a VPL must be able to carry out all the
programming tasks of formavisual, without having to resort to the representation
textual.
Hernaddez Valdraroar, E.J. (2001). The visual programming paradigm. Mexico City. Retrieved from:
