>[Vadim Gritsenko] > [Stefano Mazzocchi] > > It was sooooooo cool when you saw a demo. > > Horrible to work with it. > > why? visual programming is bullshit. > Not if it supports full round trip, nonvisual -> visual > -> nonvisual.
Visual programming is very old, i.e., 1960's. (http://radio.weblogs.com/0119894/2003/04/23.html for pointers to some resources and blog entries) There is a level of detail and interactivity which is appropriate for different "sizes" of represented objects: High detail (e.g., expressions/lines of Java code) --> Representation only with all interaction done with the underlying code. Lower detail (e.g., web pages, business objects, web services calls) --> Visual manipulation via model without access to underlying code, property panels for configuration, drill-down to code or expressions Low detail (e.g., web applications, physical servers) --> Representation only with real-time updates and some interactivity (e.g., monitoring/management) For a platform like Cocoon, a visual representation with linkage or drill-down to locations in configuration files or source code would be the way to go. The representation would have to be regenerated with changes, but it would provide a visual overview. (This could probably even be done with SVG...) $0.02, -- PB
