The interface designer in me immediately wants to scream "Fitt's Law!"¹ and move the header with run/select/save from above the output to between the output and the code blocks though.
EDIT: Actually, Fitt's Law tells us not to do that. But scrolling to find those buttons is also wrong. Why not make it a sticky header?
I'm really curious if this could be used for people who need to write code but aren't trained for it or because it's not their job. A lot of people are not willing to learn coding, and I really feel there are possible effort to make it more simple.
The first thing that scare those people is the whole "plain text" thing. Spelling errors in programming are not forgiving and that's the first thing learners have trouble with.
One example that comes to mind is science. There often is data to process, and excel can obviously do many things, but I'm really confident that more could be done.
Programming feels like something that is often done by experts, but it really really doesn't have to.
Of course, programmers often disagree that beginners should be given tools to replace experts programmers, but it's still better to have someone who can do the job of a programmer.
I've had some success teaching workshops to adults who aren't familiar with programming for the product I use it on. A lot of them are able to really grasp how to get things done within a session, but figuring out more advanced things (e.g. loops, functions, dictionaries) is still somewhat clunky.
I've been using this and a custom React wrapper at work to build an automation tool for legacy Windows apps with a lot of success: https://etacautomation.com
Blockly is vanilla JS and very easy to extend as needed (I added a better type system, for example), and their new plugin system is super helpful. Its performance isn't quite there, but I have high hopes for the future with the changes I've seen so far. The devs have been wonderful to work with, too.
One thing I love about blocky vs scratch is that it outputs regular code, in several languages. This means you can use it as "guard rails" up until you understand the concepts, then start using the generated language when you need more. It's also a DSL, in the sense that you can generate regular code from any blocks you make, at any level of the code flow, and you can mix that with already-made blocks for your target language. I started work on a Minecraft bot/mod tool that outputs JavaScript, for example, and added the full API (that is available in JavaScript code) so if you feel limited by the the blocks, you can just focus on the code. I stopped working on it, because the library it depends on to interact with Minecraft stagnated (and got really out of date with Minecraft versions) but a similar approach could be applied to pretty much anything. https://github.com/konsumer/botmodblock
I used that blockly maze to teach kids at my son's primary school some programming. It starts out simple, and then you progress through loops, conditions, and eventually they have to implement a real wall-following algorithm.
I had 3 students at a time so I could help them a lot, which some kids definitely needed. But some didn't, and came up with some really interesting algorithms.
I've just spent half an hour searching through my saved contalks folder trying to find a talk from (I think) last year where a someone talks about their new compiler research regarding block-based languages, specifically to make it easy to design and implement custom block based languages. Does this ring a bell with anyone?
[+] [-] dang|4 years ago|reply
BlocklySQL: A new block-based editor for SQL - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25517043 - Dec 2020 (38 comments)
Blockly is a library for building visual programming editors - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10763057 - Dec 2015 (40 comments)
Google Blockly is a library for building visual programming editors - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9987641 - Aug 2015 (1 comment)
Google's Blockly Games - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8211031 - Aug 2014 (18 comments)
Google Blockly - a visual programming language - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4050426 - May 2012 (123 comments)
[+] [-] misterdata|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vanderZwan|4 years ago|reply
The interface designer in me immediately wants to scream "Fitt's Law!"¹ and move the header with run/select/save from above the output to between the output and the code blocks though.
EDIT: Actually, Fitt's Law tells us not to do that. But scrolling to find those buttons is also wrong. Why not make it a sticky header?
¹ https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/fitts-l...
[+] [-] TechBro8615|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jokoon|4 years ago|reply
The first thing that scare those people is the whole "plain text" thing. Spelling errors in programming are not forgiving and that's the first thing learners have trouble with.
One example that comes to mind is science. There often is data to process, and excel can obviously do many things, but I'm really confident that more could be done.
Programming feels like something that is often done by experts, but it really really doesn't have to.
Of course, programmers often disagree that beginners should be given tools to replace experts programmers, but it's still better to have someone who can do the job of a programmer.
[+] [-] usertanooki|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 123pie123|4 years ago|reply
This is almost the next stage from learning scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/)
[+] [-] mch82|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CuriousSkeptic|4 years ago|reply
https://kogics.net/kojo
[+] [-] usertanooki|4 years ago|reply
Blockly is vanilla JS and very easy to extend as needed (I added a better type system, for example), and their new plugin system is super helpful. Its performance isn't quite there, but I have high hopes for the future with the changes I've seen so far. The devs have been wonderful to work with, too.
[+] [-] NoahKAndrews|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mic-kul|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] konsumer|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mcv|4 years ago|reply
I had 3 students at a time so I could help them a lot, which some kids definitely needed. But some didn't, and came up with some really interesting algorithms.
[+] [-] vanderZwan|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] c-py|4 years ago|reply
It didn't really hit the mark - but working with Blockly was a great experience nonetheless
[+] [-] wryun|4 years ago|reply
A few years ago we did a bunch of short free "hour of code" courses with a few different block flavours:
https://groklearning.com/hoc/
(search for blockly)
[+] [-] pan69|4 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Authorware
[+] [-] onion2k|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cpcallen|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] corentin88|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dvh|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shakna|4 years ago|reply
I used it to compile->Lua when getting one of my nieces started with the NodeMCU ecosystem.
So I'd say it was her gateway drug for robotics.
[+] [-] amitport|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] k__|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
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