Visual Programming's Future: Beyond Nodes and Wires

This article explores the limitations of visual programming, arguing that it has long been trapped in the node-and-wire paradigm, neglecting the principle of "form follows function." Using CellPond as an example, the author highlights that its success lies in defining the underlying function (only four operations) first, with the form emerging naturally. The author further elaborates on the threefold meaning of "function": intrinsic nature, rationality, and algebra, and argues that visual programming should focus on leveraging the human visual cortex's pattern recognition capabilities to model problems, rather than simply mimicking textual programming. The article proposes modeling problems as entities and relationships, and utilizing visual elements (color, grouping, motion) to represent state changes, thus breaking through the limitations of existing visual programming and creating more powerful programming tools.