Which visual programming language best suits each school level? A look at Alice, iVProg, and Scratch

Studies show that visual programming languages (VPL) may favorably be used for introducing programming. Several tools to support VPL are available for teaching programming, but these diversity makes it difficult for teachers to know which one is better suited to a particular student profile. In addition, the adoption of VPL without a methodology, that suits the student's profile, might negatively impact their learning. In this work, we perform a comparative analysis between some existing VPL software, like Alice, Scratch and iVProg with the aim of presenting their main characteristics and making a comparative analysis of their specifications and suitable level schooling. The results show that, although existing VPL have common characteristics, in some cases, they have specificities in relation suitable users.