[jlawer]

Not the future of computing... the future of small LOB apps written by fred in sales to keep track of things the CRM software doesn't, or tony in logistics to keep track of stuff that isn't covered by the warehouse management system.

Like VB (pre .net) & Access this will allow the average business user to suddenly create computer software suited to their individual task... and become the bane of IT once it becomes "mission critical" (in the sense that the business looses serious productivity without it) as it will be developed in such a way that "works" but is terribly inefficient. This is not always a bad thing, there can be considerable wisdom in letting these tools develop and not spending real development resources on them until they have proved their worth.

I believe visual programming will become a tool for the serious programmer the day you can reliably visualize a code base like postgreSQL, firefox or Open Office, patch a bug, submit a couple of line diff and have the other contributors none the wiser. Until that point in time I feel it will be nothing but Hypercard with a new coat of pain.

That being said I could see visual programing interface as an improvement on the GUI builder type tools (.Net, Delphi, XCode) where you not only design the static layout, but are able to design animations and transitions visually.