Natural programming languages and environments

Abstract

An environment that works the way nonprogrammers expect is more inviting and helps users become more confident and productive.Over the last six years, we have been working to create programming languages and environments that are more natural, or closer to the way people think about their tasks. Our goal is to make it possible for people to express their ideas in the same way they think about them. To achieve this, we have performed various studies about how people think about programming tasks, both when trying to create a new program and when trying to find and fix bugs in existing programs. We then use this knowledge to develop new tools for programming and debugging. Our user studies have shown the resulting systems provide significant benefits to users.

End-User Programming for Web Mashups

“…To do so, we will utilize a User-Centered Design (UCD) methodology [33], in which the end-user needs and feedback affect every step of the design process. Getting closer to the mindset of the end-users can help with the design of a more natural and powerful EUP tool for mashups [34].…”

Fast, Accurate Creation of Data Validation Formats by End-User Developers

“…This robust correspondence makes it feasible to integrate constraints with formal grammars (below). As users have trouble grasping mixtures of conjunction and disjunction [11], all constraints are conjoined, and disjunction is expressed as two constraints with parallel sentence structure that are each not always true. Toped has an advanced mode, not shown in Fig.…”

Easing the Smart Home: Translating Human Hierarchies to Intelligent Environments

“…Automatic systems, on the other hand, represent those systems trying to replicate the solutions that have been explicitly given by the user. These systems are normally based on "white box technologies" such as rule-based [3] or case-based [4] expert systems, since, as stated by Myers, the closer the language is to the programmer's original plan, the easier the refinement process will be [5]. Closer or farther from the end-user mental plans, those systems pretend to be programmable and, to that extent, they provide means for creating, structuring and organizing "code".…”

“…Closer or farther from the end-user mental plans, those systems pretend to be programmable and, to that extent, they provide means for creating, structuring and organizing "code". In this sense, Myers points at rule-based languages as the ones naturally used by users in solving problems [5]. Summarizing, while autonomous environments try to "replace" the user, automatic environments try to extend their control.…”