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Comment by WillAdams | Hacker News Reader

Yes, but this eliminates syntax errors, and since it works well for folks who have difficulties w/ keyboards/are using styluses is something a bit different from the traditional view of programming as textual instructions.

It would be interesting if it were more graphical/symbolic, and unlike Scratch (or its derivative Blockly) there aren't any visual cues as regards enforced syntax/structure.

Interesting that they have a link for "Rich Comments (Adding Images)": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yd72YrXxF0

Is it possible to install for Windows w/o using Steam?!?

For those who are curious there is a list of GUI elements which are supported:

https://doublesvsoop.sourceforge.net/pwct2/visualcomponents....

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The ironic thing is that as visual programming languages become sufficiently robust, the necessity of typing quickly returns.

Blueprint in Unreal is the best example where you can try to dig through a tree of thousands of nodes (where hierarchies inherently start to become counter intuitive in at least some cases) or you can just start typing the node names.

And then once you start also specifying the parameters you end up, more or less, typing out the calls anyhow - but with the downside that visual programming rapidly becomes inscrutible at scale with size + flow control/branching.

Thanks for your kind words

To run the software without steam, install Ring language (Windows/Linux/macOS) then run it directly from the source code: https://github.com/PWCT/pwct2?tab=readme-ov-file#running-pwc...

In terms of adding more graphical/symbolic elements, we will address this in PWCT3. Additionally, publishing the PWCT2 source code will enable developers to extend the software in various directions based on their vision.

> who have difficulties w/ keyboards/are using styluses is something a bit different from the traditional view

This part would be interesting, I perennially wish I could code on my tablet, but the IDEs there are just too awkward.

The big issue is, I still want a touch-type interface (like a keyboard) so that I can rapidly access many different concepts, but the Android UI is just too constrained by me having to peck slowly one key at a time.

I.e. the problem (there) is not the code, it is the input method. What I really need is the ability to access my idioms with multiple fingers, but without smudging my feedback loop (the mobile screen).

Perhaps some method of inputting code as symbols with a stylus could work better? Although it might still be very awkward...

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