17. The method of claim 15 wherein the GUI includes a component library area that includes a set of icons available for use in the virtual instrument panel, the method further comprising: dragging a selected icon from the component library area to the panel layout area with a mouse pointer; and presenting a section of code corresponding to the selected icon as floating text at the mouse pointer.
18. The method of claim 17 further comprising: inserting the section of code corresponding to the selected icon at a user selected location in the program dialog area.