Two studies of subjects' ability to specify sample computations for a program synthesis system

Abstract

A system which has been previously developed for synthesizing programs from traces of example calculations is briefly described. With this system a person uses a light-pen interactive display for communication of his algorithm. He would first declare variables and data structures which would appear on the screen and then work through the steps for a calculation using the screen and light-pen in a scratch-pad fashion. A program is then produced by the system from the observed trace of the calculation.After such a system was created, it had to be tested to see how effective it is for human use. Two basic questions needed answering, first the ease with which the system would be learned and secondly how it compares for experienced users to other means for communicating algorithms such as programming. The results of experiments carried out to answer these questions are then given and discussed.