Small-Step Live Programming by Example

Video

DOI

Live programming is a paradigm in which the programming environment continually displays runtime values. Program synthesis is a technique that can generate programs or program snippets from examples. Previous works that combine the two have taken a holistic approach to the way examples describe the behavior of functions and programs. This paper presents a new programming paradigm called Small-Step Live Programming by Example that lets the user apply Programming by Example locally. When using Small-Step Live Programming by Example, programmers can change the runtime values displayed by the live visualization to generate local program snippets. We implemented this new paradigm in a tool called SNIPPY, and performed a user study on 13 programmers. Our study fnds that Small-Step Live Programming by Example with SNIPPY helps users solve harder problems faster, and that for certain types of queries, users prefer it to searching the web. Additionally, we identify the user-synthesizer gap, in which users’ mental models of the tool do not match its ability, and needs to be taken into account in the design of future synthesis tools.