Google Blockly — a Language With a Difference 141
mikejuk writes "There are aspects of Google that increasingly don't make sense. First they dump App Inventor — a graphical language for Android apps — in a fit of spring cleaning and closures — and now they have launched another Scratch-like graphical language, Blockly. However Blockly is different. It works like Scratch or App inventor but it is written in JavaScript. This means it can be included in any web page or web app very easily. This, in turn, means that it can be used for education, getting people to learn to program, or as an easy-to-use script generator for the app. The FAQ gives the example of automating GMail filters and management. The additional difference is that Blockly can compile its programs to JavaScript, Dart or Python so you can take the script and develop it further. This is a really good idea. As long as Google doesn't throw this one out in a fit of reorganization and spring cleaning, it's a welcome new language."
Re:At the risk of sounding elitist... (Score:2, Interesting)
Looks like another 20% project (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm seeing no evidence this is a Google-backed project, at least in the links provided - it's a project from a guy who works at Google, that's all. So expecting Google to guarantee this exists in perpetuity is not particularly realistic. Realistically, you should have the same expectations you'd have on a project from, say, SourceForge.
Basically this looks like a Javascript re-envisioning of Apple's Automator [wikipedia.org]. Might be a fun toy, but not much more than that.
Re:Google OR Microsoft (Score:5, Interesting)
Is this really a language as much as it is an IDE that saves to Javascript, Dart, or Python? It's not like they took the new language all the way down, they just wrote a nice Javascript based way to make more Javascript, or Dart, or Python. I suppose in the sense of "knowing how to use it" it then becomes a language since it completely obfuscates the layer below it, but there are plenty of people who make their way through C# with nothing more than the help of Visual Studio. So, is Visual Studio a language too?
Re:Tired of Google's lack of product maintenance (Score:4, Interesting)
If you violate this expectation too many times, people will stop paying attention.
This very true line made me think of network executives and programming *cough* Firefly *cough* Caprica.
I want a direct Python version of this (Score:4, Interesting)
While I've never made time to go do the experiments, I've often wondered why someone hasn't done a Python IDE that provides a Scratch-like UI, but manipulates the Python AST directly. Seems like that should be doable.
Anyway, I believe Scratch-like interfaces are the future of programming languages. Much as when Backus discovered Noam Chomsky's formal grammars and compilers development as it was done in FORTRAN and COBOL was replaced by a grammar-driven parser in the development of Algol, and pretty much all languages since, eventually, the Scratch-ification of the IDE will become the "obvious" replacement for linear streams of ASCII character codes.
Yes (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, is there any evidence whatsoever that these "graphical" languages are easier for people to learn?
My kid is 5, and he spends hours writing little programs in Scratch. The click and drag aspect of the graphical language makes it much easier for him. If he had to rely on his nascent typing skills to write code, he'd be stuck in the frustration of Syntax Error Hell, as I was for years when I first started pounding out Basic code on the Apple II.