While the blocks editing mode has some of the benefits of blocks editors, it still has many weaknesses that make it less usable to beginners than the conventions established by Scratch and Blockly:
Syntax errors are still possible when in blocks mode, via typing and drag and drop (see #339).
Colors are not used effectively to distinguish different different types of computation. (It's very low contrast, and many blocks do not have a background, reducing the skeuomorphic sense of stacked blocks).
While the autocomplete menu allows for some things to behave like drop downs, this is not consistently available, nor are drop down arrows always visible, nor does the autocomplete menu behavior align with drop down menu conventions.
There are no visual indicators of where things are droppable.
What's the design idea?
The overall design idea is to address the three problems above, bringing blocks mode in closer alignment with Scratch and Blockly conventions, but still preserving the full functionality of Wordplay text editing and visual design.
amyjko
commented
3 weeks ago
What's the problem?
While the blocks editing mode has some of the benefits of blocks editors, it still has many weaknesses that make it less usable to beginners than the conventions established by Scratch and Blockly:
What's the design idea?
The overall design idea is to address the three problems above, bringing blocks mode in closer alignment with Scratch and Blockly conventions, but still preserving the full functionality of Wordplay text editing and visual design.
Design specification
The spec should address all of the problems above