Yes, it can be using the so called "projectional editors" like MetaProgramming System (MPS) or Intentional Workbench. There, you are directly editing the abstract syntax of the language, there's no parsing, and language integration is easier as you don't end up with ambiguous grammars. They have their own problems too as you have to get used to a different mode of coding. 

Check out some demos of mbeddr project (based on MPS)  to see what's possible today. 

Michal

From: Darren Grant
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 6:12 PM
To: Bardur Arantsson
Cc: Haskell Cafe
Subject: Re: [Haskell-cafe] extending the notion of notation

There are plenty of counterexamples. Variations on visual function blocks abound in engineering circles.

A better question might be whether the HMI bandwidth can be increased beyond what's possible with a keyboard.

Cheers,
Darren

On May 20, 2014 12:26 PM, "Bardur Arantsson" <spam@scientician.net> wrote:
On 2014-05-20 20:59, Albert Y. C. Lai wrote:
>
> Can programming be liberated from the plain text file?

No.

I hate to be downer, but every single time I've seen a proposal for this
it has failed to account for how, *exactly*, it is actually different in
any meaningful way from the failed attempts at addressing this issue.
I've often been quite tempted to draw up a checklist à la the infamous
spam-fighting checklist for why
$YOUR_IDEA_FOR_NON-TEXT-BASED_PROGRAMMING won't work -- at the very
least it'd serve as a time-saver whenever this comes up :).

We can all dream, but unless and until someone comes up with something
*radically* different from previous attempts, it just ain't going to happen.

Regards,

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