[Edu-sig] Visual Programming in Python?

[Trent Oliphant]

Kirby wrote

>We're no longer talking about kid-friendly programming though.  This
>is about adult application developers who want to save time,
>especially when it comes to visually designing a user interface from
>palettes of canned widgets.
>  
>
I never thought that the discussion was necessarily just making 
something that is kid-friendly, but I think that would be a possible 
benefit.  I personally would love to have this sort of tool - mostly for 
learning purposes and being able to follow code.

I would be willing to work on this sort of project - especially if it 
had as ONE of its focus tools for teaching programming concepts. I 
homeschool my children and have tried to figure out how to teach them 
programming.  I know that there is alot of great books and other tools 
out there for this, but alot of it is an issue of time.  If I could be 
working on a project with my children and the tools were easy enough for 
them to use - then I would be able to work with them more. 


Kirby also wrote earlier

>Given Python is so OO, my first concern would be whether this
>flowchart-driven system would push us back to a more loopy/blocky
>procedural style.  I'd like to see what this would look like on paper
>before I was persuaded it was a worthwhile undertaking -- not that I'm
>any kind of gatekeeper or funder in this regard, so pay no attention.
>
Even in OO programming there is still plenty that is procedural based 
within objects and methods.
Of course - I don't know that I fully use the power of OO in my 
programming style rather just using a class as a wrapper for a bunch of 
procedures.

Trent Oliphant