Amy J. Ko
Nov 24, 2020

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There’s a funny overloading of the term “block” here. When talking about “block-based editors”, “block” refers to the visual rectangle surrounding some node in the code’s abstract syntax tree. But in programming language terminology, a “block” specifically refers to a namespace in a lexically scoped language. But not every node in an abstract syntax tree is a block (e.g., expressions in JavaScript). So they are two very different uses of the word “block” that only coincidentally overlap in some ways.

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Amy J. Ko
Amy J. Ko

Written by Amy J. Ko

Professor, University of Washington iSchool (she/her). Code, learning, design, justice. Trans, queer, parent, and lover of learning.

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