History

After reading Flow-based Programming in 2013, i was fascinated by the concept. I wanted to build a version which is suited to make user interfaces, even there are a lot of comments which say FBP is not suited to build UIs. I tried a lot of variants (with jQuery, terrificjs, AngularJS,… ) and was not successful, until i came across Polymer.

– FBP’s orientation towards reuse also forces one to distinguish between a particular use of a component and its general definition. This may seem obvious in hindsight, but, even when documenting conventional programs, you would be amazed how often programmers give a fine generalized description of, say, a date routine, but forget to tell the reader which of its functions is being used in a particular situation. Even in a block diagram I find that programmers often write in the general description of the routine and omit its specific use (you need both). This is probably due to the fact that, in conventional programming, the developer of a routine is usually its only user as well, so s/he forgets to “change hats”. When the developer and user are different people, it is easier for the user to stay in character. [van Norstand Rheinhold, Flow based Programming (1994). Page 30]