37 // Visual programming with Maggie Appleton

Creating software is typically done in text-based environments—but would programming be more accessible with graphical programming tools? Maggie joins Mark and Adam to talk about the relative success of Scratch, Shortcuts, and Zapier; how to make the abstract visible; embodied metaphors; and the false duality of artistic versus logical thinkers. Plus: how to make blinking lights for your Burning Man art installation.

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Show notes

• Maggie Appleton @mappletons
• egghead.io
• Centre for Computing History
• Pacific Pinball Museum
• Nintendo 64
• the noughties or the aughts
• React
• Scratch
• Zapier, IFTTT, Integromat
• low-code / no-code
• Rocky’s Boots
• circuit diagrams
• DrScheme
• Origami Studio
• Muse memo on infinite canvas with Origami screenshot
• LabVIEW
• Logic Pro, Reason
• the environment in Logic
• iOS Shortcuts (née Workflow)
• console loggings
• end-user programming: embodiment
• VS Code, npm, Ruby on Rails, GraphQL, React hooks
• cultural anthropology
• Geroge Lakoff, Mark Johnson
• embodied metaphors
• Dan Abramov
• Just Javascript
• pointers in C
• Redux actions
• _why’s poignant guide to ruby
• Learnable Programming
• Edward Tufte, Visual Explanations, Beautiful Evidence
• Graphviz DOT graphs
• jigs in wordworking
• Unity
• episode with Geoffrey Litt
• Flutter, SwiftUI
• XState
• Apparatus
• direct manipulation
• Dreamweaver
• Interface Builder
• Hacker News folk wisdom on visual programming
• Adafruit
• circuit debouncing with capacitors
• walk uphill in the snow
• Visual Programming Codex
• Whole Code Catalog