Then you should check out Snap!, which is like Scratch without any of the limitations, essentially a visual programming language with the full power of Scheme.

https://snap.berkeley.edu

Snap! 5 is here (snap.berkeley.edu):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20309162

>One of the coolest ways to learn programming I've ever seen is the Snap! visual programming language, which is written in JavaScript and runs in the browser. https://snap.berkeley.edu

>It's the culmination of years of work by Brian Harvey and Jens Mönig and other Smalltalk and education experts. It benefits from their experience and expert understanding about constructionist education, Smalltalk, Scratch, E-Toys, Lisp, Logo, Star Logo, and many other excellent systems.

>Snap! takes the best ideas, then freshly and coherently synthesizes them into a visual programming language that kids can use, but is also satisfying to professional programmers, with all the power of Scheme (lexical closures, special forms, macros, continuations, user defined functions and control structures), but deeply integrating and leveraging the web browser and the internet (JavaScript primitives, everything is a first class object, dynamically loaded extensions, etc).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18497883

>Alan Kay wrote some interesting stuff about some of the inspirations for "Tile-" and "Block-Based Programming", like "Thinkin' Things", in a discussion about the Snap! visual programming language! https://snap.berkeley.edu

>From: Alan Kay Date: Thu, 3 May 2018 07:49:16 +0000 (UTC) Subject: Re: Blocky + Micropolis = Blockropolis! ;)

>Yes, all of these "blocks" editors sprouted from the original one I designed for Etoys* more than 20 years ago now -- most of the followup was by way of Jens Moenig -- who did SNAP. You can see Etoys demoed on the OLPC in my 2007 TED talk.

>I'd advise coming up with a special kid's oriented language for your SimCity/Metropolis system and then render it in "blocks".

>Cheers

>Alan

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38016554

>I'm also a huge fan of Snap!, which has all the advantages of Logo (Lisp without parenthesis) and Scratch / eToys / Squeak / App Inventor family of block based visual programming languages, but all the power of Scheme.

>If you know Scheme, then it's easy to think about Snap!: it's just Scheme with a visual block syntax, but with some functions renamed to make them easier to learn, plus all the stage and turtle graphics stuff from Scratch, running in a web browser!

>I didn't realize until watching in amazement as Jens Mönig used his own creation, that it also has full keyboard support, so you can create and edit programs without using the mouse!

>It's much easier to teach Scheme to kids by teaching them Snap!, because the user interface is so much better than a text editor.