ANNOUNCE: Release of Vital, an interactive visual programming environment for Haskell

[Keith Hanna]

Graham Klyne  writes:


> This looks like much fun.  I took a quick look at the screenshots, but
> don't see any provision for graphical display of *programs* -- is there?

At present, there isn't.  But plans are to incorporate a graphical style of
programming, much along the lines of the Dami and Vallet  paper on
"Higher-order functional composition in visual form"
    http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/dami96higherorder.html

> I've sometimes thought that a functional language would be the ideal
> platform to usher in a purely graphical style of programming;  there have
> been a few attempts over the years to do purely graphical programming, but
> they seem to founder somewhat on impedance mismatch between static visual
> presentation and dynamic behaviour of an imperative program, and I could
> see referential transparency eliminating some of these difficulties.

I agree. A graphical programming style is essentially a declarative one, and
so needs to be coupled with a purely declarative programming language -- and
of course a functional programming language is ideal for this.

> Also,
> one could very easily imagine a graphical representation of a "point free"
> style of programming, with its emphasis on combination of functions.  The
> Lego Mindstorms system is representative of the kind of environment where
I
> think graphical and functional styles could merge very neatly.

I think many potential uses of functional programming languages, who might
find the functional composition dot operator a bit foreign, do indeed feel
perfectly at home linking chains of function-boxes together.  Graphical
programming has a lot going for it.

Keith Hanna