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I am doing the chapter on register machines now. I love the diagrams that show the controller and the data path of the machine. See http://sarabander.github.io/sicp/html/5_002e1.xhtml#g_t5_002...

Scratch and Quartz composer show code in a graphical way. Are there examples of languages that show the data path in a similarly graphical way?

I would love to see how variables relate to each other and other functions (the data path) separated from the order in which these operations actually happen (the controller). It would be an interesting way to debug. For example, variables that get assignment but are never read would be glaringly obvious.




While it's very purpose specific, you might check out Unreal Engine 4's visual scripting in Blueprint.

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Blueprints/U...

For a quick primer: white connections represent the flow of execution, and have a variety of flow control nodes (Switch, Gate, DoOnce, etc) to direct execution around the graph. The other color coded lines represent the usual int/float/bool/string types, as well as some specialized things like rotators/translators/objects.

The debugging is fantastic, and sounds like something you might be interested in. You can set breakpoints on nodes and step through execution. Hovering the mouse over any variable will tell you what it's currently set to, or you can mark a value to be displayed next to its node in the graph. Take a look here for more: https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Blueprints/U...

You'd need a $20/month subscription to get UE, but you can cancel it immediately if you don't mind not getting updates.




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