Visual Programming Languages
Philip T. Cox · Wiley Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Engineering · 2008
Abstract Diagrams have always been used as aids in the design of programs, but because of the limitations of hardware and software, could not be directly incorporated into the software development process until the advent of low‐cost, high‐quality graphics in the 1980s. This enabled research on the pictorial representation of software structures, including an extensive study of visual programming languages. A visual programming language is one that uses diagrams to represent significant portions of the logic of a program, with the aim of making programs easier and faster to build and debug. We present several representative visual programming languages, discuss theoretical and cognitive issues, and provide a brief overview of current research in the area.