ArduBlockĪ month or so ago, a coworker of mine (hi Brian!) showed me a beta release of ArduBlock. So, in this week's Enginursday post, I wanted to introduce a couple of exciting visual programming tools that are specifically geared toward the physical computing we love. On the National Tour, and just browsing the Internet, this is a form of programming I've been encountering a lot lately. And with the (admittedly necessary) annoyances of syntax removed, more of your programming focus can be directed towards solving the actual problem.

With color coded operators, geometrically shaped data types, and no semicolons (!), visual languages have a unique ability to make programming a more intuitive experience. I got my first taste of programming with RCX Code and an old Mindstorms RCX 1.0, so maybe it's nostalgia speaking, but I really admire visual programming languages for their ability to introduce younger folks to programming.