Pocket code: a mobile visual programming framework for app development

Software development more and more focuses on mobile and connected IoT solutions. Whereas a variety of frameworks is available for professional developers, also the need comes up to deliver apps fast for personal use or rapid prototyping. Innovative ideas, in whatever context, must be realizable without having a vast amount of resources or deep domain-knowledge needed. In this work we present Pocket Code, a free open source mobile visual coding framework for Android and iOS with various hardware extensions, enabling everyone to create powerful apps directly on mobiles in short time. Especially the included visual coding-bricks for Arduino boards and Raspberry Pis also allow more sophisticated programs not only in an educational context to be developed with Pocket Code. In contrast to existing solutions, the presented app does not require any PC setting and is therefore making the development of apps mobile and broadening it to an even wider audience.