Isn't this how some UI frameworks work(ed)? You had graphical design tool that then generated some blob (or xml) that you then included in your application.
More extreme example would be the various business process etc things, like KIE/Drools/jBPM, or BPEL/BPMN, that also allow various ways of mixing various visual and traditional practices.
I think the common thing with all of these is that in the end no developer actually liked them.
Now thinking of this, one of the problems is that there is no suitable generic graphics format that could be used as a base for these sort of visual programming ideas. So there isn't any text-editor analog for visual programming currently, instead all visual programming environments I've seen use some specialized custom tools and formats.
More extreme example would be the various business process etc things, like KIE/Drools/jBPM, or BPEL/BPMN, that also allow various ways of mixing various visual and traditional practices.
I think the common thing with all of these is that in the end no developer actually liked them.
Now thinking of this, one of the problems is that there is no suitable generic graphics format that could be used as a base for these sort of visual programming ideas. So there isn't any text-editor analog for visual programming currently, instead all visual programming environments I've seen use some specialized custom tools and formats.