Usability of Programming Languages: Special Interest Group (SIG) Meeting at CHI 2016

ABSTRACT

Programming languages form the interface between programmers (the users) and the computation that they desire the computer to execute. Although studies exist for some aspects of programming language design (such as conditionals), other aspects have received little or no human factors evaluations. Designers thus have little they can rely on if they want to make new languages highly usable, and users cannot easily chose a language based on usability criteria. This SIG will bring together researchers and practitioners interested in increasing the depth and breadth of studies on the usability of programming languages, and ultimately in improving the usability of future languages.

References

1. Altadmri, A., et al., "37 Million Compilations: Investigating Novice Programming Mistakes in LargeScale Student Data," in SIGCSE'2015. pp. 522--527.
2. Cardelli, L., "Type Systems," in CRC Handbook of Computer Science and Eng., 2nd Ed., 1997, CRC Press.
3. Cartwright, M., "An Empirical View of Inheritance." Inform Soft Technol 1998. 40(4): pp. 795--799.
4. Conway, M., et al. "Alice: Lessons Learned from Building a 3d System for Novices," in CHI'2000. pp. 486--493.
5. Daly, J., et al., "Evaluating Inheritance Depth on the Maintainability of Object-Oriented Software." Empirical Soft. Eng., 1996. 1(2): pp. 109--132.
6. Daughtry, J.M., et al., "Api Usability: Chi'2009 Special Interest Group Meeting," CHI'2009, Boston, MA. pp. 2771--2774. See www.apiusability.org.
7. Endrikat, S., et al., "How Do Api Documentation and Static Typing Affect Api Usability?," ICSE 2014 632--642.
8. Green, T.R.G., "Cognitive Dimensions of Notations," in People and Computers 1989, Cambridge Univ. Press.
9. Hanenberg, S. and Endrikat, S., "Aspect-Orientation Is a Rewarding Investment into Future Code Changes - as Long as the Aspects Hardly Change." Information & Software Technology, 2013. 55(4): pp. 722--740.
10. Harvey, B. and Mönig, J., "Lambda in Blocks Languages: Lessons Learned," in IEEE Blocks and Beyond Workshop, 2015. pp. 35--38.
11. Hoc, J.-M. and Nguyen-Xuan, A., "Language Semantics, Mental Models and Analogy," in Psychology of Programming, 1990, Academic Press. pp. 139--156.
12. Kaijanaho, A.-J., Evidence-Based Programming Language Design: A Philosophical and Methodological Exploration. PhD Diss., Information Technology Faculty, University of Jyväskylä, 2015, Jyväskylä, Finland. 222.
13. Myers, B.A., Pane, J.F., and Ko, A., "Natural Programming Languages and Environments." CACM, 2004. 47(9): pp. 47--52.
14. Pane, J.F. and Myers, B.A., Usability Issues in the Design of Novice Programming Systems. Technical Report, Carnegie Mellon University-CS-96--132, August, 1996. Pittsburgh, PA.
15. Pane, J.F. and Myers, B.A., "Tabular and Textual Methods for Selecting Objects from a Group," in IEEE VL 2000. Seattle, WA. pp. 157--164.
16. Stefik, A., et al., "The Programming Language Wars: Questions and Responsibilities for the Programming Language Community," Onward! 2014. pp. 283--299.
17. Stefik, A. and Siebert, S., "An Empirical Investigation into Programming Language Syntax." Trans. Comput. Educ., 2013. 13(4): Article 19.
18. Tratt, L. and Wuyts, R., "Dynamically Typed Languages." IEEE Software, 2007. 24(5): pp. 28--30.
19. Uesbeck, P.M., et al., "An Empirical Study on the Impact of C++ Lambdas and Programmer Experience," ICSE 2016. To Appear.
20. Weinberg, G.M., The Psychology of Computer Programming. 1971, New York: von Nostrand Reinhold.

Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

• Software and its engineering

  • Software notations and tools

    • General programming languages

      • Language features