Yes, I'm pretty sure next big language will continue where Self stopped.  
(programming as an experience)

Visual programming is much more "direct" than reading & writing. However  
I'm not sure if we can make useful visual programming language without  
need for any kind of scripting.

On Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:58:34 +0200, Darius Clarke <socinian at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> Maybe it's time to throw out syntax and "text" based programming all
> together...
>
> The punctuation is just there to trigger the parser to perform ... and
> trigger the memory of those "in the know" about: what "did", or "does",  
> or
> "will" happen.
> What if we use spreadsheet cells, or colors, or fonts, or little icons
> superimposed on the labels (text labels/names for code, data, or other
> memory artifacts or equipment) to more clearly express visually what is  
> more
> often hidden in meaning.
>
> Each cell/label can expand to explicitly visually express its connection  
> to
> time, persistence, mutability, scope, nesting, linking, precedence,
> execution order, namespace, importance to the individual programmer or
> importance to society at large, implications of change, and other
> properties.
>
> Why? For the same reason syntax coloring helps the memory. There's just  
> too
> little information visually expressed in syntax, a holdover from the  
> early
> dark days of computing, when every bit & byte was expensive. It's why we
> vocally speak to each other with much intonation to carry extra meaning  
> and
> not just speak in monotones. We're in the GUI age now. And I don't mean
> graphical drag and drop programming or APL special symbols! I mean code
> entry by typing ... but translated, and stored, with its visual
> representation of meaning. For example, in such an IDE, one could change  
> the
> English word with one in another language with the same meaning, but the
> references and context remain the same, independent of the text of the
> label, like a spreadsheet cell does.
>
> Simplicity ... through multi-level, collapsable, visual explicitly.
>
> - Darius


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