A number of different projects have faced the difficulties of programming via textual languages (context free languages) for non technical users; an alternative approach is provided when using icons/diagrams/forms as new structures (equivalent to privileged symbols/words). This approach follows different computational paradigms but most particularly refers to the dataflow scheme. A number of projects and working visual programming languages will be reviewed, compared and contrasted. New, promising ideas will also be provided to enlighten the near future of this area.