"ADA" Visual Scripting VSCode Ext.

A VSCode plugin for Plutus/Haskell to visualize on-chain transactions, smart contracts, state machine, etc. using nodegraph 'flow' diagrams.

I have experience in UI/UX & graphic design, prototyping, animation/film/video, front-end dev, functional programming & design patterns.

Market/Use Cases:
As a Visual Scripting Language:

• There have been various attempts to create visual scripting and programming environments with varying degrees of success and usefulness. Most have copied the node-based piping flow method used in game engines and VFX software (which is highly event and action driven). It works well for those applications, but is not as widely used for web apps and UI (which is more state, and data driven, with 'secondary' event handlers/listeners)
• Others simply recreate text code as visual components, just trading the mouse for the keyboard. They have the advantage of avoiding syntax errors, as well as the initial overwhelming confusion at reading/interpreting code for new programmers, and thus find use primarily as educational tools. They offer limited advantages to experienced coders.
• Our approach is different though, as the focus is on structure. Visual and semantic abstraction and simplification of the flow of the app and its components encourages a modular, segmented, and scalable process that is much quicker and easier to iterate, communicate, and implement revisions between team members/departments/roles (ie. designers, and front-end, back-end developers)

As a Visualization/Analysis or Simulation Tool:

• Also could be used to build custom visualizations (interactive or dynamic/animated presentations) of software applications and complex projects [ie. networks, servers/clients/API/deployment, tech stacks, blockchains/dapps, platforms, big data, etc.] and for dapp/product design & planning.

Competitors/Comparables:

• Solidity visual programming extension for VSCode; https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=tintinweb.solidity-visual-auditor

Product Roadmap:

1. The intention is to develop an initial 'proof of concept' MVP from a fork of a similar project developed for the Etherium Smart Contract language 'Solidity'. The VSCode Extension developed for Solidity (link to project above, and forked github repo) contains much of the same functionality as intended for the "ADA" project, but for some key differentiators as mentioned above.
2. This will intentionally cut down the development costs significantly so that we can test the concept on primary adopters, validate, and make decisions on which direction(s) to go from there. Normally, a project of this scale would require more upfront development time/costs, but the existing Solidity project allows to create an MVP at low cost. After experimentation/testing/validation, we will most likely rewrite the project from the ground up (depending on the chosen direction & outcomes, decisions regarding IP, etc.)

Budget:

• Refactoring forked code & rewrite of parser for Haskell/Plutus/Glow
• Refactoring and redesigning interface nodes

• 100 hrs x $60/hr = $6000

Research/Whitepapers:

• https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02426339/document