We get mixed feedback about visual programming using connections. VAJava was created in a time when 4GL tools were in vogue and people were having to switch programming languages (C++,Smalltalk then Java) so the VAJava VCE started out by having connections and assuming users would never have to edit the source. Then people wanted to edit the source so user code sections were introduced in version 2.0 to let you put your own code into auto-generate methods, but people wanted their changes to be reflected back in the VCE's Java Beans. Then users found that they couldn't just wire Java Beans together and they had to drop to code a lot so event to method connections had end points that showed the method target in a grey box in version 3.0, and a feature was introduced to try and reverse engineer the Java beans from the source although this never really worked that well. Also, lots of users just stopped using the VCE because the complexity of their connections create a visual spaghetti, and would switch to a competitor's product that supported round tripping from the source. Java skills today are easier to find than they were in 1996 ( I presume you are a fairly skilled Java developer otherwise you wouldn't be posting messages to an Eclipse newsgroup ) so the Visual Editor was conceived as something that sits on top of the Java Editor and uses features like code assist and templates and refactoring whereever possible, and the Visual Editor just focuses on being a GUI builder first and foremost.

Interesting, I guess pictures aren't worth a thousand words when it comes to programming! You can't do mathematics by drawing pictures, it's the same thing with programming, pictures (i.e. UML diagrams) don't mean squat until your code actually works. Visual tools only handle the simple situations, when it gets complicated there's no substitute for a text editor.

These days I'm finding it easier to understand code using Eclipse. Its the subtle integration with the editor and the advanced search and navigation capabilities that make all the difference. The design is extremely well done.

Clearly round tripping between source and visualization should be a given. Togethersoft got that right, and them been doing well ever since.

Speaking about visual programming, check this stuff out Interactive Source Code. It's from one of the developers from Microsoft's defunct Intentional Programming project, Lutz Roeder.