CS 609 Diskussionsseminar: Human Factors in Programming Languages

Logistics

Instructor: Eric Walkingshaw
Weekly meeting: Mondays, 16:00 – 17:30
Seminarraum XII C3
Course web page: http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~walkings/teaching/cs609-wi14/
(This document, which will be updated throughout the course.)

Motivation

Most programming language research is focused on formal qualities like type safety and correctness, or else on machine-centric qualities like efficiency. However, a programming language is ultimately intended to be used by a human. The languages we use shape the way we approach, understand, and attempt to solve problems. Good languages can not only help professional programmers be more productive and solve harder problems, they can empower non-traditional programmers by making computing more accessible.

In this seminar, we will focus on human aspects of programming language design. We will discuss theories from cognitive science related to programming and how these theories can be applied to improve the design of programming languages. We will discuss human-centric language design methodologies and theoretical frameworks for analyzing the usability of programming languages. Finally, we will study the unique challenges of designing a language for the huge and rapidly growing class of non-traditional, end-user programmers.

In addition to the general goals of a discussion seminar (exposure to research, practice reading and discussing papers, etc.) the specific goals of this seminar are to:

  • Motivate end-user programming and user-focused language design.
  • Develop a vocabulary for discussing language and interface design issues related to usability.
  • Develop a “toolbox” of theories and strategies that you can apply to your own design problems.
  • Practice applying these tools to a specific problem of your choice.

Structure of Course

The seminar will be divided into two phases. During the first and longer phase, we will function as a reading group. During the second and much shorter phase, you will apply your new knowledge to a language or interface design problem, and share your design with the group.

Phase 1: Reading Group

This phase will last for the first 14 weeks of the semester.

Each week I will assign a paper, book chapter, or other reading for our next meeting. I will also provide a brief motivation for why I selected the reading in order to help you understand the paper in the context of the seminar. All participants will read the assigned reading each week.

One participant will lead the discussion at each meeting.

If you are not the discussion leader, you must submit 2-3 discussion topics or questions to the discussion leader and to me. This is intended to encourage you to think critically about the paper before you arrive at the meeting, and so will hopefully lead to more interesting discussions.

If you are the discussion leader, you should use the submitted questions to guide your preparation. Most importantly, you should dig deeper in order to answer questions or provide additional insights. This will usually require looking into related work.

During the discussion, the discussion leader will briefly summarize the main points of each section, pose topics for discussion, attempt to answer questions, offer additional insights, and keep the discussion on track. Everyone else should come prepared to discuss the paper! Not only will this be more lively and fun, it will make the discussion leader’s job much easier.

To summarize, your responsibilities during this phase of the seminar are to:

  1. Read the assigned reading each week.
  2. Submit discussion topics/questions to me and the discussion leader 24 hours before each meeting.
  3. Attend and participate in the discussions.
  4. Prepare for the discussions that you will lead (dig deeper).

Phase 2: Application to a Design Problem

This phase will last for the final two weeks of the semester, although you should start working on it earlier.

In this phase of the seminar you will apply the knowledge you have gained throughout the semester to a small design project. You will design a language or tool that enables a specific user to perform some specific programming tasks that would be difficult or impossible for them to accomplish otherwise. You will use at least two of the intellectual tools we have discussed this semester during the design process.

Link to Project Specification

Schedule and Reading Assignments

15 Oct Course introduction, schedule a weekly meeting time.
21 Oct

Blackwell, First Steps in Programming: A Rationale for Attention Investment Models, HCC 2002.

This paper serves two roles. First, it provides definitions of “programmer” and “programming” that are somewhat broader than you might expect. This will help us to define the scope of the seminar. In particular, we will consider many aspects of what might traditionally be called “user interface design” to be within our purview as language designers. Second, it introduces the attention investment model, which can help to understand when a user will invest effort in learning a new language or feature, and suggests strategies for encouraging this investment.

(Discussion leader: Jan)
28 Oct

Green and Petre, Usability Analysis of Visual Programming Environments: A ‘Cognitive Dimensions’ Framework, JVLC 1996.

The cognitive dimensions are the most well-known and widely used analytical framework for the usability of languages and interfaces. Perhaps their most valuable contribution to the field is providing a shared vocabulary for notational qualities that impact usability, something that will also be useful for us in this seminar. Besides this vocabulary, the framework emphasizes the trade-offs between dimensions.

(Discussion leader: Tobias)
4 Nov

Peyton Jones, Blackwell, and Burnett, A User-Centered Approach to Functions in Excel, ICFP 2003.

This paper applies the two intellectual tools we have seen so far–the Attention Investment model and the Cognitive Dimensions–to the design of language extensions to Excel spreadsheets. It provides a nice illustration of how these tools can support a systematic, analytical approach to user-focused design.

(Discussion leader: Daniel)
11 Nov

Wilson et al., Harnessing Curiosity to Increase Correctness in End-User Programming, CHI 2003.

This paper introduces the surprise-explain-reward strategy in the context of encouraging end-user programmers to test their programs. Attention investment provides a theory about how users decide where to spend their attention based on cost, risk, and reward. Surprise-explain-reward provides a strategy for altering this equation. Specifically, it attempts to lower the (perceived and actual) costs associated with learning a new feature, while making the reward more immediate and clear.

(Discussion leader: Michael)
18 Nov No meeting this week.
25 Nov

Moody, The “Physics” of Notations: Towards a Scientific Basis for Constructing Visual Notations in Software Engineering, TSE 2009.

The physics of notations is a theory for designing usable visual languages. It is founded on a synthesis and organization of a large amount of existing research on human perception and cognition. Compared to the cognitive dimensions, it is intended to be prescriptive, more objective, and falsifiable. However, it focuses mostly on picking effective graphical symbols, and so is less generally applicable than the cognitive dimensions and the other theories we have discussed.

(Discussion leader: Jonathan)
2 Dec Continue discussion of the Physics of Notation.
9 Dec

Burnett et al., Gender Differences and Programming Environments: Across Programming Populations, ESEM 2010.

The field of Gender HCI is concerned with how males and females interact differently with computers (on average), and how to create software that takes these differences into account, thereby supporting a broader range of users and problem-solving strategies. I think this is an especially important issue for programming languages and tools since these are the keys to computing empowerment. This paper looks specifically at the intersection of Gender HCI and programming environments. The paper is also highly empirical, complementing the mostly theoretical papers we have read so far in this seminar.

(Discussion leader: Björn)
16 Dec

Pane and Myers, More Natural Programming Languages and Environments, in End User Development, Springer, 2006.

A language can be called “natural” if it has a high closeness of mapping with the (possibly informal) way that (some group of) people think about and express solutions to programming-like problems. The term can be a red flag in human-centric research, since it is usually applied post hoc and without evidence. The Natural Programming Project, however, proposes a design methodology where designers first identify what is “natural” for users in a particular domain, then iteratively design and evaluate a language tailored to the way these potential users already think. While their focus is on non-programmers, the methodology can also be applied in other contexts. In contrast to the other design tools we have discussed this semester, the natural programming methodology is fundamentally user-centric and bottom-up.

(Discussion leader: Stefan)
13 Jan

Ko and Myers, Designing the Whyline: A Debugging Interface for Asking Questions about Program Behavior, CHI 2004.

As part of the Natural Programming Project, Ko and Myers found that, when faced with unexpected results, both programmers and non-programmers formulate “why did …” and “why didn’t …” questions about the program’s behavior. With traditional debuggers, attempting to answer these questions is difficult and time-consuming, perhaps because the interaction with the system is in quite different terms (e.g. breakpoints, log files, code-stepping). The Whyline allows users to ask these kinds of questions directly through a process called interrogative debugging. This paper also illustrates how the cognitive dimensions can be used in interaction design, in addition to interface and language design.

(Discussion leader: Eric)
20 Jan

Coughlan and Johnson, Interaction in Creative Tasks: Ideation, Representation and Evaluation in Composition, CHI 2006.

Programming is largely about creative problem solving, but promoting creativity is usually not an explicit design goal of programming languages and tools. In the context of music composition, this paper presents a model of human creativity and describes how tools can be designed to support this process. It focuses especially on supporting collaborative creativity.

(Discussion leader: Eric)
27 Jan

Meyerovich and Rabkin, Empirical Analysis of Programming Language Adoption, OOPSLA 2013.

What makes a programming language popular? I think programming language academics are painfully aware that the most popular languages lack many of the properties and qualities we care about. This paper presents a ton of data about how and why languages become popular. It focuses especially on the role of social factors and existing infrastructure in language success, but also looks at the public perception of various language features. Understanding the programming language market is an important part of getting our ideas used by wider world.

(Discussion leader: Jan)
3 Feb Design project presentations: Michael and Tobias
10 Feb Design project presentations: Björn and Jan