Introduction

Please help evangelize Visual Programming Languages by joining The Bay Area Visual Programming Group or create a Visual Programing Group meetup in your area.

It’s a new meetup (please read below on why) so there might not be many people there.

Why a New Meetup Group?

I had no idea there would be so much interest in Visual Programming Languages when we made the post Visual Programing Languages - Snapshots.

There didn’t appear to be any groups that focused on Visual Programming Languages in meetup.com so we have created one for the Bay Area and Santa Cruz, CA.

Why Join?

VPLs are not new and the computer industry was heading in that direction in the late 60’s and early 70’s. There were a lot of challenges to overcome: many of which have now been solved.

We are now able to shift back to the VPL/GPL paradigm we strayed from.

• Computers can now easily support the load visual programming languages put on them.
• Children and students are being introduced to programming through visual programming languages (like Sketch). This means there are a large # of people who are starting to become comfortable with VPLs/GPLs and not just coding.
• There have been technological advantages in the IT industry making VPLs/GPLs feasible.
• User Experience is a lot better because designers and artists are more involved. Designers are ready to take on the challenges brought about by VPLs/GPLs. Proof? 1990s internet vs 2010s.
• We have a better understanding of Human Computer Interaction.
• Computers are ubiquitous.

And really because:

You want to fix programming. You know, in your heart, that it makes no sense to have something as amazing as computers, and used by practically everyone on the planet, programmed by coding out complex software frameworks in abstract programming languages only understood by a few.

Conclusion

Just do it.

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