Title: Technical Dimensions of Programming Systems

Authors: Joel Jakubovic, Jonathan Edwards, and Tomas Petricek

(who I think are @Joel Jakubovic, Jonathan Edwards and @Tomas Petricek, respectively)

This is still in review afaik, but it’s just too much of a gem for this community to wait until that’s done. If one of the authors has information about the latest revisions I’d love to know more!

from the abstract:

Many programming systems go beyond programming languages. Programming is usually done in the context of a stateful environment, beyond just writing code, by interacting with a system through a graphical user interface. Much research effort focuses on building programming systems that are easier to use, accessible to non-experts, moldable and/or powerful, but such efforts are often disconnected. They are informal, guided by the personal vision of the authors and thus are only evaluable and comparable on the basis of individual experience using them. They fail to form a coherent body of research, since it is unclear how to build on past work. In the research world, much has been said and done that allows comparison of > programming languages> , yet no similar theory exists for > programming systems> ; we believe that programming systems deserve a theory too.

This paper was one of the most exciting pieces of research I’ve discovered in the last year, can’t recommend it enough! Attached is a PDF of the paper (a version of it at least) and a great single-page table (explored in detail later in the paper) which should convey some of why this is such a good fit for our community.

“Supporting Visual Artists in Programming through Direct Inspection and Control of Program Execution” by Jingyi Li, Joel Brandt, Radomir Mech, Maneesh Agrawala, & Jennifer Jacobs

Programming offers new opportunities for visual art creation, but understanding and manipulating the abstract representations that make programming powerful can pose challenges for artists who are accustomed to manual tools and concrete visual interaction. We hypothesize that we can reduce these barriers through programming environments that link state to visual artwork output. We created Demystified Dynamic Brushes (DDB), a tool that bidirectionally links code, numerical data, and artwork across the programming interface and the execution environment-i.e., the artist's in-progress artwork. DDB automatically records stylus input as artists draw, and stores a history of brush state and output in relation to the input. This structure enables artists to inspect current and past numerical input, state, and output and control program execution through the direct selection of visual geometric elements in the drawing canvas. An observational study suggests that artists engage in program inspection when they can visually access geometric state information on the drawing canvas in the process of manual drawing.

https://ecl.mat.ucsb.edu/publication/DDB