In the comments,boscillator wrote:
"I'm always saying Simulink needs a text-based interface. Same signal flow programming model that supports scopes and continues time integrators, just with text instead of drag-and-drop." (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48598291)
This has been on my own list for a long time too, so I built it. It's called MDL (Modeloop Description Language).
Every diagram now has an equivalent textual form, and the two stay synchronized in both directions. This allows users to decide if to create and modify diagrams as blocks on the canvas or as MDL text.
Curious what HN thinks — and boscillator, if you're around: this one's on you.