From Visual Programming To A Smart And Annoying Little Company

Every web browser should come with a visual programming language, that allows browser automation.

At 5AM, your browser would trigger a series of workflows, that would visit your favorite websites, browse them a little…

And extract whatever information you are interested in, converting each article, post comment into a uniform object.

These objects would be stored in the browsers local database, they can be permanent or expire, transferred to some other location.

A visual programming language is just boxes that have input and output ports, and just connect ports across various boxes.

There are some special boxes, or nodes, today’s news once such special box.

The big deal about it, is that it represents a source of data, a source of uniform objects that represent news articles.

Another special node is home page, or dashboard, unlike the news node, this is an output node, a destination node.

Then you have nodes that go into the middle, things that filter based on topics, or keywords.

If statements that branch out based on some condition, and things like thermostat control node.

Where you could grab the weather from the internet, and adjust your home’s thermostat temperature.

Because it is a programming language, it can do anything, anything you can think of.

It is a blank canvas, where you drag and drop nodes together to form programs.

If you make a reusable program, then you can group all the notes you connected together into a new node.

And here you will be able to use and re-use it, as needed.

Normally, when such a thing is put on a server, it costs money.

But when installed in a browser, as a plugin, there is no need for a server the user provides their own computer.

Because this is not an automation tool aimed at any service in particular, but a programming language, that the user controls.

Users are probably allowed to scrape websites for personal use, and no internet server could distinguish between automation and user.

There is no way to tell if the user is scrolling and clicking next page, or if it is a scheduled task.

Creating a visual programming language, that can run inside a web browser plugin, is shockingly easy.

And both, a fantastic reason to learn JavaScript programming, and a way to teach programming to users who think more visually.

If you were to program and sell such a browser plugin, a small and useful company would emerge.

Such a tool would be very useful, as it cuts down on the bloated distractions, the clutter, and sluggish websites.

If you created matching server software, the same language user interface could automate the home.

And one of the fundamental features of such tools, is cross connectivity.

Here the web browser plugin could forward data to a server on the users local network.

Finally, the nicest example of a friendly vidual programming language, is Node-RED, and the gnarliest Blender’s Geometry Nodes

Despite not being popular today, Visual Programming Languages will become a big deal soon enough.

After all, they have no limits, they help your future customers do anything and everything.