DefinePK

Abstract

Visual Programming Languages (VPLs) provide ease of programming by reducing the need of manually typing code for programming. Although the existence of VPLs is almost as old as textual programming languages but they have not become a mainstream technology for developing professional programs. However, the recent introduction of web-based VPLs, such as Scratch and Snap, has reinvigorated the usefulness of VPLs. Today, there exist dozens of VPLs having diverse characteristics. However, a comprehensive analysis of these diverse visual programming languages has never been conducted. Such an analysis is required for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of VPLs, as well as to choose the most suitable VPS for the task in hand. To that end, this study has performed a comprehensive search of a large number of 40 VPLs and analyzed and compared these VPLS based on 14 characteristics.