Visual Programming

Abstract

Abstract The widely recognized value of icons, diagrams, and other graphical notations in human–computer interaction and human–human (interhuman) communication, and the decreasing cost of hardware technologies and graphics software have caused the development of a novel approach termed visual programming or graphical programming . Visual programming covers a wide variety of activities that make extensive use of icons and diagrams to convey information and to allow for multimodal communication and interaction between humans and computers. Indeed, in spite of the terminology adopted, “visual programming” does not denote merely the specification of visual programs but rather refers to the ability of using graphics as a communication means in any activity that involves human–computer interaction. Typical activities that benefit from the use of visual languages are generation of graphical user interfaces, database manipulation, supporting novice users in program comprehension, and program composition. Thus, a huge amount of visual programming languages have been introduced. Such languages allow a user to communicate with the system by spatially arranging visual objects on the screen, so as to compose a “visual sentence.” It is worth pointing out that despite their names, Visual Microsoft languages are not actually visual programming languages. Indeed, they are textual programming languages enhanced with a graphical user interface builder meant to support the programmer in the construction of the user interface portion of the program. These languages and there formal specifications are discussed. Also discussed is the implementation of systems that generate these measurements.