Advantages of visual programming
Only a small amount of learning is required. Essentially, an idea can be “written” as a program straight away. Illustrative symbols ensure easy comprehension. Since there’s no syntax, no typos can creep in. This helps programmers understand the basic concept of a programming language.
Visual programming languages enable a process known as explorative programming. Simply begin and build a program step by step, before an exact solution has been fully thought through. Existing programming steps can be tested for their functionality time and again. Programmers mainly work with browser-based solutions that work regardless of the computer operating system. The results can normally be exported to other, text-based programming languages.
Disadvantages of visual programming
Part of graphical programming is tied to special applications or certain systems, hardware or end devices. In general, it’s not possible to create individual elements or add comments for project team members to review. This makes it hard to maintain an overview even with only slightly more complex programs. Moreover, visually programmed projects can only be scaled to a limited extent. Adjusting them to large or rapidly growing projects is therefore difficult. In the case of big projects, the advantage of explorative programming can quickly become a disadvantage in the form of unstructured code. Programs like these are awkward to maintain and expand.