PyFlies: A Domain-Specific Language for Designing Experiments in Psychology

Abstract

The majority of studies in psychology are nowadays performed using computers. In the past, access to good quality software was limited, but in the last two decades things have changed and today we have an array of good and easily accessible open-source software to choose from. However, experiment builders are either GUI-centric or based on general-purpose programming languages which require programming skills. In this paper, we investigate an approach based on domain-specific languages which enables a text-based experiment development using domain-specific concepts, enabling practitioners with limited or no programming skills to develop psychology tests. To investigate our approach, we created PyFlies, a domain-specific language for designing experiments in psychology, which we present in this paper. The language is tailored for the domain of psychological studies. The aim is to capture the essence of the experiment design in a concise and highly readable textual form. The editor for the language is built as an extension for Visual Studio Code, one of the most popular programming editors today. From the experiment description, various targets can be automatically produced. In this version, we provide a code generator for the PsychoPy library while generators for other target platforms are planned. We discuss the language, its concepts, syntax, some current limitations, and development directions. We investigate the language using a case study of the implementation of the Eriksen flanker task.

Podrška Za Pyflies Jezik U vs Code Editoru

“…Ovaj rad obuhvata dizajn i implementaciju nadogradnje na podršku za Visual Stuio Code radno okruženje za PyFlies jezik [1]. Inicijalna verzija PyFlies ekstenzije obuhvata bazične funkcionalnosti, a u okviru ovog rada je implementiran niz kompleksnih funkcionalnosti, kao što su analiza koda i prijava grešaka, skok na definiciju, prikaz referenci i još neke.…”

“…Praćenju ovih principa idu u korist činjenice da je PyFlies jednosavan za razumeti i lak za naučiti, i to da se za opis eksprimenata koriste apstraktni pojmovi, i usko povezani za domen, bez brige o detaljima implementacije, što umanjuje mentalni napor potreban za pisanje i razumevanje eksperimenta [1].…”

“…Jezici specifični za domen, JSD (en. Domain Specific Languages, DSL) predstavljaju programske jezike ograničene ekspresivnosti, dizajnirane za rešavanje specifičnih problema u određenoj oblasti [1]. Ovi jezici konstruišu se tako da odgovaraju specifičnim potrebama domena, pružajužajući prilagođene koncepte, sintaksu i semantiku za izražavanje ideja i operacija u tom domenu.…”

Developing Microservice-Based Applications Using the Silvera Domain-Specific Language

“…However, it is important for the DSL to provide a syntax that can be read and comprehended by domain experts even if they do not type the program directly. A DSL that domain experts can read can serve as a design and implementation tool and as a requirements elicitation medium [34]. The empirical studies suggest that the use of DSLs increases flexibility, productivity, reliability, and usability [35,36].…”