G#, a graphical approach to functional programming

Abstract: The purpose of this bachelor thesis was to present a solution for how a graphical programming language with a functional mindset can be constructed with the help of inspiration from functional programming. An artefact was created by using design science as a research methodology and has in several iterations gone through development and testing to reassure the outcome works as intended. The graphical programming language which has been developed is a language that allows the programmer to code in depth, functions are written as blocks inside blocks and the language is made compact. A code structure in a JSON-format was developed at the same time as G#, allowing it to be presented in a texted data format. The purpose of the JSON-format was to enable execution of G# and the transformation to a text-based programming language. Implications can be made from this study by learning about how a graphical programming language can be built from scratch and what difficulties needs to be tackled to get a result that works as intended. G# was developed to only support a few selected and commonly used functions in programming due to time limitations. The final version of G# in this study can do calculations, handle lists and perform less complex algorithms. Under the development of G#’s graphical functions, the free tool Draw.io was used. Unknowingly from the start, Draw’s limitations made it not perform as expected. Therefore, it is recommended to investigate which available tools are most suited for the construction of the graphical functions before development begins.