I wonder if anyone who’s been following the iPhone, iPod touch, Neo1973 or any other multitouch handheld has considered the possibility of visual programming for these devices?

Since the devices, by nature, aren’t built to be the most adept typing machines (that goes for any mobile, since you can only use one of each finger at a time to type text on it), they are apparently not the best devices on which to create an application with a typed programming language (even the JavaScript that is used for any third-party webapps on the iPhone/iTouch). They are, however, *intensely* graphical, as the screens of these devices, which are used to display the information that is received or generated by the OS, tend to encompass the majority of the device’s front-end.

So if the combination of a graphical interface with an all-fingers interaction method is our only way to make sufficient use of these devices, then what about the applications which could be installed on these devices (the jailbreaking of Apple’s devices is another story)? At the moment, most applications for mobile devices, multitouch or no, are created trough the use of the keyboards for desktop computers, and are created in a variety of programming or scripting languages (sometimes with interfaces which make use of markup, stylesheets and vector graphics) which have to be typed gratuitously and fluidly.

But what if one doesn’t have a desktop or laptop device available, but has a multitouch handheld to, well, handle? What if the user feels like creating an application that isn’t already available on the device, like a plugin for a built-in audio player interface?

I think that, in this case, an on-device visual programming environment, one that is made for multitouch interaction, may be the best solution for creating applications on the device.

Since visual programming is, from my supposition, less driven by the keyboard and more driven by the mouse on a desktop computer (drag n’ drop and all that), then such a programming environment form could possibly be easily driven by fingers as well. This would make it extremely easy for the users of these devices to create installable programs and applications from within the devices rather than from without.

Now if only Firefox was ported to the iPhone so we could try this theory out.

Demo of visual programming, using Quartz Composer: