Google Blockly — a Language With a Difference

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."

Comments

Re:Google OR Microsoft

[jeffmeden]

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?

Yes

[spike2131]

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.