GNOME: An Introductory Programming Environment Based on a Family of STructured Editors

Structure editors have frequently been used as powerful and unifying interfaces for programming environments in computer science research settings. Few, however, have found their way into common use. GNOME is an attempt to channel the experience gained in the use of structure editing for software development environment research of the Gandalf Project into a practical novice programming environment. Based on a family of structure editors, it is currently being used to teach programming to undergraduates at Carnegie-Mellon University. This paper describes the GNOME environment, recounts lessons learned in adapting structure editors to novice programmers, and discusses its effectiveness as a teaching environment.