Studying the language and structure in non-programmers' solutions to programming problems

Programming may be more difficult than necessary because it requires solutions to be expressed in ways that are not familiar or natural for beginners. To identify what is natural, this article examines the ways that non-programmers express solutions to problems that were chosen to be representative...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of human-computer studies 2001-02, Vol.54 (2), p.237-264
Main Authors: PANE, JOHN F., RATANAMAHATANA, CHOTIRAT “ANN”, MYERS, BRAD A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computers
Human-computer interaction
User interface
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Summary:Programming may be more difficult than necessary because it requires solutions to be expressed in ways that are not familiar or natural for beginners. To identify what is natural, this article examines the ways that non-programmers express solutions to problems that were chosen to be representative of common programming tasks. The vocabulary and structure in these solutions is compared with the vocabulary and structure in modern programming languages, to identify the features and paradigms that seem to match these natural tendencies as well as those that do not. This information can be used by the designers of future programming languages to guide the selection and generation of language features. This design technique can result in languages that are easier to learn and use, because the languages will better match beginners' existing problem-solving abilities.
ISSN:1071-5819
1095-9300
DOI:10.1006/ijhc.2000.0410