Programming environment for visually thinking coders
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Nodes is a JavaScript-based programming tool linked to the Npm ecosystem. It divides the code into function blocks that are visually related to each other.
With the visual programming environment Nodes.io the three programmers Nick Nikolov, Marcin Ignac and Damien Seguin deliver a hybrid of visual and text-based coding. Instead of creating the program code for an application exclusively by entering text, Nodes relies on a dual functional principle.
Contents
Code blocks are pushed together with the mouse
The individual functions of the program to be created are still coded by hand and then saved as a function block. Then these individual function blocks are assembled using the mouse and related to each other. The Nodes app offers a graphical editor and a text editor for this purpose, so that developers can switch at will. The current state of development is displayed on a two-dimensional canvas next to the programming environment.
Nodes emerged from the specific needs of the London agency Variable, for which three developers work. The tool has already been used there for several customer projects – primarily for the creation of 3D graphics.
3D graphics with nodes. (Screenshot: variable)
The tool is intended to offer particularly creative developers a more open view of the possibilities that tunnel vision, which is easy to use with text-based coding, often prevents. This is particularly useful for projects that create design from code – such as the IBM Technology Garden.
We could simplify Nodes.io as Scratch designate for adults. Scratch is a visual programming environment that is tailored to children and young people and enables them to create games and animations, for example.
Despite web technologies, Nodes is a native app
in the Nodes playground you can take a look at some simpler and more complex projects in detail and play a little with the code blocks and their relationships. In the end, however, Nodes is an app that you have to download and install for Windows, MacOS and Linux.
Although it relies fully on web technologies, the developers do not yet have a cloud implementation on offer. This is on the agenda for future development. Nodes has been developed since 2017 and is currently in version 1.0.
If you want to use nodes for commercial purposes, you have to contact Variable. The free version may currently only be used for personal projects.
