In this session, we will give a quick demo of a multi-language block-based integrated programming environment. We envision that our environment will be suitable for both programming novices and experts by borrowing design choices from editing environments such as Scratch/Snap and Vim.

Our environment features support for Smalltalk, Scheme and a subset of Javascript, as well as domain specific languages. We will demonstrate benefits that we encountered when working with blocks rather than text to motivate why reconsidering text as the base could pay off.

We want to then discuss the environment’s current shortcomings and ways to mitigate these that we’ve tried or plan to try, and whether a shift from text to blocks can even be worth it. It would be great to discuss your experience with block-based or visual programming and where you feel the potential has fallen short so far and what features you value when interacting with text-based environments.