Google Blockly is a new programming language. It’s actually a visual tool that runs in your browser (no plugin needed): to code something, just drag-n-drop blocks fill the fields of the blocks, and connect them according to your algorithm. Google Blockly can export your block-based code to JavaScript, Dart, and Python.
Here are the main features of Google Blockly:
- Execute in a web-browser. No downloads or plugins needed.
- Exportable code. Users can extract their programs as JavaScript, Dart, Python or other language so that when they outgrow Blockly they can keep learning.
- Open source. Everything about Blockly is open: you can fork it, hack it, and use it in your own websites.
- Highly capable language. With the ability to calculate standard deviation using a single block, Blockly is not a toy language.
- Blockly in itself is not an educational platform. Blockly is an editor that may be used as part of an educational platform, or as part of a business suite, or as part of a gaming system, etc.
Google Blockly is a not a true new language: it takes its source from App Inventor:
How does Blockly relate to Scratch, App Inventor, etc.?
The short answer is that Blockly was influenced by App Inventor and App Inventor was influenced by Scratch. Rather than being a stand-alone program, Blockly is a code editor that can be embedded into a larger project. For more information, see the page of Alternatives to Blockly.
Links:
- google-blockly homepage
- FAQ – High Level
- Google Blockly – a visual programming language @ Hackers News
I quickly (…) tested Blockly in this demo:
Here is the code in Python:
Look at the difference between the simple Python code and the blockly visual code… 😉
can’t wait for OpenGL Geometry Instancing Test
blocky edition so I can run it on linux 🙂
Not a revolution.
Similar approach exists since year for creating games
Take a look at scratch or Kodu from Microsoft
http://vimeo.com/29457909#at=4
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/
Not an original idea at all.
This was in the first results for “visual programming” in google images: http://livingcode.org/assets/2008/scratch_hexes.png
Oh scratch that previous comment, didn’t read the text that was set to italics on a lighter gray, for some reason…
i dont get the visual more easy to read.
looks just like rehash of the android app maker..
Not too intuitive…..
I find the Visual programming in games more logical. Long back I tried the Quest3D tool, which has a very powerful visual programming tool…
…. newz looking forward for more updates from google on Blockly.
This is not Google Blockly, it’s just Blockly. Google is only hosting the project on Google Code, it’s not otherwise related to its development.
well, good thing you compared it to an equivalent in python so we can clearly see that it is much easier to read in python.