A prototype visual structure editor for Pascal

Abstract

The development of programming tools for conventional, textual environments has dramatically increased the productivity of the individual programmer, but these environments have been developed to their logical extremes. Current research in the field of interactive programming environments has moved toward graphics-oriented systems to take advantage of the wider bandwidth of information transfer that is inherent in these systems. This paper describes the design and implementation of a prototype visual programming paradigm. Built around an interactive, user-friendly interface which used a mouse, menus and windows, the systems enables the user to construct Pascal programs through a combination of graphical object manipulations and textual entries.