sle2024/slebok3

SLE 2024 body of knowledge paper:
The Linguistic Theory behind Blockly Languages

Friedrich Steimann, Robin Stunic

• DOI: 10.1145/3687997.3695636
• T1A: Design
  • It develops a principled account of how Blockly-style block languages are designed and structured.
• T4F: Visualisation
  • Blockly’s block-based notation is a visual syntax whose structure and affordances are a primary focus.
• T5H: Usability
  • The motivation is grounded in learnability/usability for novices and end-user programmers.
• T3C: DSLs
  • Blockly configurations are effectively DSLs whose syntax is instantiated from a language definition.

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The page is maintained by Dr. Vadim Zaytsev a.k.a. @grammarware. Last updated: June 2026.