[pfdietz]

I think it's a proven mistake to use visual representations in place of textual representations for creating software. The information density is low, it's difficult to work with, browse, and search, and (a real killer) merging in version control systems is a nightmare.

[khooke]

Given the current day struggle to merge code with whitespace differences, merging differently arranged visual programming elements where the end result is the same but the positioning of the elements is just different sounds like a tough problem. Although linking of elements is probably key, rather than visual positioning. I imagine this is something IBM VisualAge had to deal with back in the late 90s. If I remember right local history was a key feature of VisualAge, a feature that carried across to Eclipse and is still there today.