Taxonomies of Visual Programming (1990) [pdf]
Cool stuff. Wish I found this a few years ago when I dug into this topic for a thesis. Back then I analyzed this incredible resource (warning: clicking this link will load looots of images): <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.interfacevision.com&#x2F;design&#x2F;design-visual-progarmming-languages-snapshots&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.interfacevision.com&#x2F;design&#x2F;design-visual-progarm...</a> 
and came up with my own provisional taxonomy where major categories were &quot;Line-connected block-based&quot;, &quot;Snap-together block-based&quot;, &quot;List-based&quot;, &quot;Enhanced text&quot;, and a few others.<p>Looking back I still think that the most promising direction when it comes to real-world applications of visual programming is the hybrid approach: make a language which has &quot;real-time&quot; interchangeable text and visual representations -- you get the best of both worlds this way (that was basically the topic of my thesis[1]).<p>I thought it was an original idea when I started out with my research, but sure enough there were attempts in the past. And towards the end (4+ years ago) I discovered a fresh one which seems to be still going strong, albeit rebranded: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;enso-org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;enso-org</a>
Last time I checked they were making what I consider a bad design choice by leaving the structuring of the visual representation entirely up to the user, but maybe that&#x27;s fixed now.<p>Anyway I think it&#x27;s a cool topic and worth keeping an eye on.<p>[1] If anyone is interested it&#x27;s available here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;djedr.github.io&#x2F;masters_thesis.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;djedr.github.io&#x2F;masters_thesis.pdf</a>