Почему визуальное программирование и D3NE могут быть Вам полезны

Я как‐то думал, как выглядело бы представление LabVIEW’шных виртуальных инструментов в формате, который производил бы относительно читаемые diff’ы. Основная суть идеи в том, что метаданные отдельно, логика отдельно, представление отдельно. Если правильно выбрать способ сортировки данных одного уровня иерархии и разбивки на строки, то можно получить относительно читаемые diff’ы. Правда, в моём примере ниже нужно больше внимания уделить алгоритму генерации имени проводов.

Если что, получилось что‐то вроде (мысленно удалите комментарии)

%YAML 1.2
---
description: Wait for delay milliseconds.
# …
# Other metadata from VI properties
# …
icon:
    palette:
        a: {A: 0x00, R: 0x00, G: 0xff, B: 0x00}
        b: {A: 0x00, R: 0x00, G: 0xff, B: 0x00}
    # “Image” key uses single-character ARGB colors from palette.
    # UTF-8 in case ASCII is not enough.
    image: |
        bbbbbbbbbb
        baaaaaaaab
        bbbbbbbbbb
        baaaaaaaab
        baaaaaaaab
        baaaaaaaab
        bbbbbbbbbb
terminals:
    pattern:
        left: 3
        top: 0
        bottom: 0
        right: 3
    list:
        - name: delay
          caption: "delay (default 5000 ms)"
          location: left 0
          direction: input
          type: I32
        - name: error in
          caption: "error in (no error)"
          location: left 2
          direction: output
          type: error cluster
        - name: error out
          caption: error out
          location: right 2
          direction: output
          type: error cluster
code:
# Code: contains all used nodes and their relations, but not their positions
# or positions of the wires.
#
# The code is created as following: first all node names are determined.
# Then AST is sorted so that if node B has inputs wired to outputs of node A
# then node A appears first. Should that not allow determining the order
# then nodes are sorted alphabetically.
#
# After sorting is complete all nodes are appended indexes to make them
# unique. Indexes are tracked in runtime and preserved so the below index
# order only keeps being perfect on the first save.
#
# Note: if node was replaced via “Replace” context menu it still keeps its
# index: this is one of the main points in having global incrementing indexes.
#
# Inputs/outputs are named after their nodes with terminal names appended.
# Should terminal name be not unique its position is appended.
#
# Only inputs/outputs which have wires receive their names: names in
# node dictionaries define connections.
- control/delay 0: {output: control/delay 0/output}
- control/error in 1: {output: control/error in 1/output}
- case structure 2:
    selector: control/error in 1/output
    # Terminal properties which do affect logic are defined here
    use default if unwired:
    - indicator/error out 5/input
    cases:
        Error:
        # In some cases there is nothing, but wire; and it is significant
        # for the logic.
        - wire: !!set {control/error in 1/output, indicator/error out 5/input}
        No Error:
        # User VI: same as default ms waiter, just to show how it would look.
        #
        # Dictionary near the node maps terminals to connections.
        - My Wait.vi 4: {wait: control/delay 0/output}
- indicator/error out 5: {input: indicator/error out 5/input}
# Define wire positions in a form [anchor (output terminal), relative
# x/y offset, anchor (input terminal)]. Wires without sources or with structure
# terminals as sources are listed from sink. Wires without sources or sinks just
# use [anchor, node name] with nearest anchor. No absolute positions used ever.
#
# Note: determining exact anchors still needs code above, pairs in wire
# position only reference nodes.
#
# Since wire may have more then one sink this is a list of lists of lists,
# innermost list is a 2-tuple (type, data).
#
# Structure terminal positions are also defined here.
wires:
    control/delay 0/output:
    - [[source, control/delay 0], [structure terminal, [case structure 2, +1, 0]], [case, No Error], [sink, MyWait.vi]]
    control/error in 1/output:
    - [[source, control/error in 1], [structure terminal, [case structure 2, +1, 0]], [case, Error], [structure terminal, [case structure 2, +5, 0]]]
    indicator/error out 5/input:
    - [[sink, indicator/error out 5], [structure terminal, [case structure 2, -1, 0]]]
# Node positions and properties that do not affect logic.
nodes:
    control/delay 0:
        type: control
        terminal: delay
        # Position is absolute
        position: [0, 1]
        label:
            # label position relative to position
            position: [-1, -1]
            visible: true
        view: icon
    control/error in 1:
        type: control
        terminal: error in
        position: [0, 0]
        label:
            position: [-1, -1]
            visible: true
        view: icon
    case structure 2:
        type: case structure
        position: [1, 2]
        size: [5, 2]
        label:
            text: Case Structure
            visible: false
            position: [0, 0]
        # Case visible by default
        selected case: No Error
    MyWait.vi 4:
        type: VI
        # Logical location (which structure, which case) is defined by logic.
        position: [2, 1]
        label:
            position: [-1, -1]
            visible: false
        view: icon
    indicator/error out 5:
        type: indicator
        position: [6, 0]
        label:
            position: [-1, -1]
            visible: true
        view: icon