Visual Programming Language Development, an Environment of Language, Real Time, and Parallel Process Development

This is a proposal for development of a visual programming environment. This would permit programs to be designed and implemented in terms of diagrams, possibly data-flow diagrams. Whereas flow diagrams have been used for a while, it will now be possible to use them as actual programs, rather than just as program-development aids. The visual-programming environment will encourage reuse of component programs, as functional blocks, to form larger programs, as tasks. Given a "library" of such blocks, it should be possible for a scientist, engineer, accountant, or business manager to quickly form programs to meet specific needs. Since each of the functional blocks has been thoroughly tested, the resultant program should be reliable. It is also possible to treat such programs as blocks for a higher level of development. The common paradigm for this is the design of integrated circuits, using libraries of pre-designed components so that the designer can easily put them together without worrying about details like molecular layers. Computer programs are more sophisticated. We propose a visual-programming editor, a program database, and real-time interrupt-driven parallel processing to be part of the library development.