Looks like a CPU. Node-based programs should dream of being laid out on nice clean (spread)sheets. Building new programs upon programs / processes upon processors. https://twitter.com/geoffreylitt/status/1341426983767519232

:P Grid-based programs (both text-grid and spreadsheet-esq) should dream of being articulated within a free-form, animated art canvas. We've had movements of impressionism and expressionism, time for a movement of comprehensionism.

The new Our World in Data makes heavy use of Grid-based programs

Think of it this way. Tangled node-edge graphs aren't the best. If your graph is planer, then you can lay it out on a grid (more or less). With the geometry of the grid corresponding to the connectedness of the graph, you don't need edges anymore. Three dimensions of course is enough to keep wires from intersecting. And with more dimensions, you can keep wires from snaking...

You can do wires in 2d that don't intersect by using "hop overs" (shown here in isolation, and in the context of a moderately complex electrohydraulic schematic).

Sheets and cell border edges (or just cell references!) would be good enough for me 😊