The Cost of Syntax and How to Avoid It: Text versus Frame-Based Editing

Abstract

Abstract-Plain text has always been the predominant medium for writing and editing programs for expert users. Text is powerful and flexible, but requires more careful manipulation than structural editors, such as those found in block-based environments. In addition, in textual editors programmers are responsible for managing detailed orthography and layout -when beginners work with text, significant time is spent managing syntax problems, indentation and spacing. Frame-based editing is a new editing paradigm that combines the structural editing of block-based systems with the flexibility and keyboard-focus of text editing. In this paper, we empirically examine how much time and effort is spent by beginners on managing syntax errors and indentation, which can be automatically saved by switching to frame-based editing. The data is obtained using the Blackbox dataset; the results predict a clear advantage of frame-based editing over traditional text editors.

Evaluation of a Frame-based Programming Editor

“…Additionally, though students in both groups spent similar amounts of time editing their code, Java students spent a median 321s making purely syntactic edits, compared to 94s for the Stride group. This amounts to almost half of the total time the Java group spent editing their code and is twice the proportion found in previous analyses [3]. It is also worth noting that Stride students encountered their own Stride-specific issues, such as accidentally inserting a frame by typing its hotkey, while intending to insert text.…”

“…Syntax errors can be a very challenging [19] and time consuming [3] aspect of programming for novices. Programming syntax can be quite obtuse, and, as others have noted [26], programming languages and compilers are largely designed for professionals, not novices.…”

“…It combines structured 'frames' of preformatted code, similar to code blocks, with 'slots' that allow for efficient textual entry of expressions. Previous work argues that frame-based editing can ease the transition from blocks to text [18] while leveraging the benefits of both [6] to reduce syntax errors and increase efficiency [3]. This paper seeks to evaluate some of these claims empirically by comparing two groups of novices working on a short programming activity in Greenfoot, an IDE designed to teach programming [17].…”

Sympathy for the (Novice) Developer

“…BlueJ [26] is a popular introductory programming environment for Java and Stride [24] (a fusion of text-based and block-based programming called frame-based editing [4,34]). BlueJ is used by thousands of CS1 students.…”

JLcoding Language Tool for Early Programming Learning

“…There are many lessons and exercises on the platform, and they also provide videos. For formal programming, it may be a good idea to use the videos to learn some of the textbased programming training; however, it requires the user to pay attention to more details, such as typing relative parentheses and noticing the placement of semicolons [68]. The users might easily forget the main learning content, which in turn can contribute to one losing their self-confidence to learn.…”