Visual Programming Languages

There seem to be a growing number of visual programming languages available these days. Kodu (below) is for creating games by younger people. It’s “When"/Do” model is simple and easy to learn. It’s a bit limited though. It is really a domain specific language for games.

Scratch is also a visual language that is widely being used to teaching young people, especially in middle school but as old as college. I love it and it has some wider applicability. And a richer language to some degree than Kodu.

Alice is the big elephant in the room in terms of visual programming languages for teaching. But it too feels limited to its domain and development environment. Great for teaching/learning but no one is  going to program an accounts receivable package in it. BTW is it just me or does Scratch’s blogs look cooler and more fun than Alice’s blocks?

So here is the real question running through my mind – could a general purpose programming language be created that removes the syntax issues the way that Kodu, Scratch and Alice do? Why not? What would be the issues? And why has no one done this yet?