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Evidence-Oriented Programming by **Andreas Stefik** (Strange Loop 2015) 41:42
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#quorum#evidence-orientedprogramming#empiricalsoftwareengineering
"Evidence-Oriented Programming" by Andreas Stefik
Strange Loop Conference
88K subscribers • 114 videos on Hallway • Conference channel
- Recommended by 2 people: 1 on Lobsters and 1 curated list.
- Presented by Andreas Stefik, creator of Quorum
- An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.
Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.
7.5K views11 years ago2 recommendations
Programming languagesComputer scienceLanguage design and type systemsComputation and complexity
Andreas Stefik argues for a scientific, evidence-based approach to programming language design and introduces the Quorum language.
Computer science has a long and complex history with programming languages. Historically, we have conducted evaluations using proofs, to ensure they give us the answers we intend, and performance data, to ensure they perform efficiently. While these two techniques are well established and important, I argue a third is fundamentally missing from the design process: a scientific analysis of impact. In the academic literature, for example, there is a near-complete lack of replicable scientific evidence regarding how the design of programming languages impacts people or communities, which has led in part to the programming language wars. In this talk, I introduce Quorum, the world's first Evidence-Oriented Programming language. Throughout it, I will discuss the specific evidence gathered on Quorum to-date and how other designers can use it to improve or evaluate their own products. Along the way, I will provide information on the history of evidence gathering through the centuries and why rigorous attention to the scientific method in this domain is crucial for the future of computer science. Andreas Stefik UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS @AndreasStefik Andreas Stefik is an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He completed his Ph.D. in computer science at Washington State University in 2008 and also holds a bachelor's degree in music. Stefik's research focuses on computer programming languages and development environments, with an emphasis on how competing language designs impact people in practice. He won the 2011 Java Innovation Award for his work on the Sodbeans programming environment and is the inventor of the Quorum Programming Language. His work is funded predominately through the National Science Foundation, most recently through the AccessCS10k alliance.Why it's here
2 people recommend thisWhat people say. Recommended for its scientific perspective on programming language design and usability.
u/bruciferNomsu.orgin r/ProgrammingLanguages • Mentions
On “Language usability and empiricism”
You should definitely check out the talk "Evidence-Oriented Programming by one of the Quorum creators.
However, I think that sort of approach is more of a micro-optimization for new users than anything else ("is it easier for newbies to use curly braces or semantic indentation?"). That can be helpful in moderation, but I don't think it's a substitute for doing actual design work. It would be like trying to write a novel by A/B testing each word one at a time: painstakingly slow, with bad results. What you actually want to do is combine skillful design (a nebulous creative process) with listening to feedback from actual users (unstructured qualitative data). In an ideal world, you have a l…
u/bruciferNomsu.orgin r/ProgrammingLanguages • Mentions
On “User-centered design questions for informing PL design?”
This might be exactly what you're looking for: "An Empirical Investigation into Programming Language Syntax". It's a really cool paper where they conducted studies on how quickly students learn new languages.
> We first present two surveys conducted with students on the intuitiveness of syntax, which we used to garner formative clues on what words and symbols might be easy for novices to understand. We followed up with two studies on the accuracy rates of novices using a total of six programming languages:Ruby, Java, Perl, Python, Randomo, and Quorum. Randomo was designed by randomly choosing some keywords from the ASCII table (a metaphorical placebo). To our surprise, we found that languag…
u/zzyzzyxxin r/compsci • Mentions
On “Study of non-programmers' solutions to programming problems [PDF]”
I imagine something like Quorum, a language designed based on the results of human-factors research. There was a pretty good talk on the ideas at Strange Loop 2015.
u/tobegain r/ProgrammingLanguages • Mentions
On “Keywords and cognitive complexity”
You might find this video on evidence based programming interesting link to this video
u/jackmottin r/compsci • Mentions
On “What will be the biggest challenges in Computer Science over the next decade?”
Yeah so more of the kind of work this guy is doing:
link to this video
and greg wilson has a book that reviews this idea:
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Software-Really-Works-Believe/dp/0596808321
u/saint_gloin r/Clojure • Mentions
On “Teaching kids to program in their native language”
There is a nice talk from the StrangeLoop 2015 on the subject of "how do language designers select names and words for the syntax". Author shows, that the choice of words can influence programmers' performance, both beginners and experienced.
I think that a properly translated programming language can have a similar or even a significant impact on a person studying it.