An Exploration of Visual and Textual Based Programming Languages: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to compare the comprehension of textual programming languages and visual programming languages. The use of programming languages has become increasingly important in today's digital world. With the growth of technology, visual and textual-based programming languages have emerged as two popular methods for creating software application. The research used Python and C++ as textual programming languages and Scratch and LEGO Mind storms EV3 as visual programming languages. The study created teaching materials separately for each language type. To evaluate the effectiveness of textual programming languages, a questionnaire was managed to more than 40 students, using the ARCS motivation model to assess their motivation levels. The results showed that the children's understanding improved as they progressed in classes using visual programming languages. In contrast, the study found that using textual programming languages like Processing resulted in increased variance in the Satisfaction factor as classes progressed, which provided limited benefits to students with high self-decay. This analysis will be helpful to software developers, educators, and students who are interested in exploring the world of programming languages.