Re:language=input device? (Score 1)

This is a very good point. There are new input devices for programming becoming available. I am an embedded systems programmer, and I recently got a CD from IAR Systems which contains a demo of a state-chart graphing program that also creates source code to match the structures drawn on-screen. A company called TogetherSoft makes a product called Together, which draws UML documents (diagrams?) including state charts and umm... whatever you call those diagrams that look like state charts but show objects instead of states. I believe it also does some of the (most of the? all of the?) source code generation. IAR works on products for embedded systems, TogetherSoft works on products for larger systems. (I don't work for either IAR Systems or TogetherSoft, BTW.)

The flow of graphs is a lot easier to perceive (imagine, create, manipulate, debug) than a one-dimensional sequence of statements. Productivity can be boosted significantly by using such tools. I don't think there's a tool out there that can, (for all applications and under all circumstances,) surpass the power, directness, control that you get from hand-writing assembly code (which is what I spend most of my time doing). But I definitely believe these can be very useful, powerful, time-saving tools in themselves, under the right circumstances.