PROGRAMMING BY EXAMPLE FOR THE CASUAL USER: A CASE STUDY
Abstract
One way of giving casual users access to some of the power
of a computer without the need to learn formal programming methods, is to allow
complex tasks to be defined extensively by example, rather than intensively by a
procedural specification. This paper studies the extent to which
iterative computations on an electronic calculator can be inferred
interactively from an initial part of the sequence of key-presses, using
techniques of non-deterministic structural identification of behaviour
sequences. The aim is to construct an interactive device which is
partially self-programming.
Despite the fact that the device has no prior knowledge of the syntax or
semantics of the dialogue, it is remarkably successful. Several short,
repetitive calculator problems have been analysed. Even in a mixed
sequence, over 75% of the dialogue elements were predicted, with an
error rate of between 0.5% and 1.5%. However, casual users have not yet been
exposed to the scheme.
Description
Keywords
Computer Science