Automatic generation of visual programming environments

Computer ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Costagliola ◽  
G. Tortora ◽  
S. Orefice ◽  
A. de Lucia
Author(s):  
Gennaro Costagliola

Much recent research is focusing on formal methods for the definition and implementation of visual programming environments. Extended positional grammars naturally extend context-free grammars for string languages to grammars for visual languages by considering new relations in addition to string concatenation. Thanks to this analogy, most results from LR parsing can be extended to extended positional grammars while preserving their well-known efficiency. XPGs include mechanisms for handling contextual information enabling us to model a broader class of visual languages, which includes the diagrammatic notations used in software engineering. Moreover, the XPG grammar formalism can be effectively used for modeling both visual and textual notations in a seamless way. The XPG model is the underlying formalism of the VLDesk system for the automatic generation of visual programming environments. VLDesk inherits and extends to the visual field, concepts and techniques of compiler generation tools like YACC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Noone ◽  
Aidan Mooney ◽  
Keith Nolan

This article details the creation of a hybrid computer programming environment combining the power of the text-based Java language with the visual features of the Snap! language. It has been well documented that there exists a gap in the education of computing students in their mid-to-late teenage years, where perhaps visual programming languages are no longer suitable and textual programming languages may involve too steep of a learning curve. There is an increasing need for programming environments that combine the benefits of both languages into one. Snap! is a visual programming language which employs “blocks” to allow users to build programs, similar to the functionality offered by Scratch. One added benefit of Snap! is that it offers the ability to create one’s own blocks and extend the functionality of those blocks to create more complex and powerful programs. This will be utilised to create the Hybrid Java environment. The development of this tool will be detailed in the article, along with the motivation and use cases for it. Initial testing conducted will be discussed including one phase that gathered feedback from a pool of 174 first year Computer Science students. These participants were given instructions to work with the hybrid programming language and evaluate their experience of using it. The analysis of the findings along with future improvements to the language will also be presented.


Author(s):  
Alexey Syschikov ◽  
Boris Sedov ◽  
Konstantin Nedovodeev ◽  
Vera Ivanova

The OpenVX standard has appeared as an answer from the computer vision community to the challenge of accelerating vision applications on embedded heterogeneous platforms. It is designed to leverage the computer vision hardware potential with functional and performance portability. As long as VIPE has a powerful model of computation, it can incorporate various other models. This allows to extend facilities of a language or framework that is based on the model to be incorporated with visual programming support and provide access to the existing performance analysis and deployment tools. The authors present OpenVX integration into the VIPE IDE. VIPE addresses the need to design OpenVX graphs in a natural visual form with automatic generation of a full-fledged program, shielding a programmer from writing a bunch of boilerplate code. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first use of a graphical notation for OpenVX programming. Using VIPE to develop OpenVX programs also enables the performance analysis tools.


Author(s):  
Wilfred W. F. Lau

This chapter traces the recent development and the use of games and digital stories for engaging students in learning in visual programming environments. It reports on the application of game development-based learning and educational digital storytelling to engage students in learning in visual programming environments. The empirical findings support the positive effects of these two learning approaches on a range of student learning outcomes. Because many available visual programming tools are free of charge and provide a low-floor, high-ceiling learning environment, teachers should encourage students to venture into the programming world with these tools. Such practice is beneficial to student learning both within the computer science discipline and across disciplines.


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