Programming environments that integrate tools, notations, and abstractions into a holistic user experience can provide programmers with better support for what they want to achieve. These programming environments can create an engaging place to do new forms of informational work - resulting in enjoyable, creative, and productive experiences with programming.

In the workshop on Programming Abstractions and Interactive Notations, Tools, and Environments (PAINT), we want to discuss programming environments that support users in working with and creating notations and abstractions that matter to them. We are interested in the relationship between people centric notations and general-purpose programming languages and environments. How do we reflect the various experiences, needs, and priorities of the many people involved in programming — whether they call it that or not?

Accepted Papers

Call for Papers

Introduction

Programming environments that integrate tools, notations, and abstractions into a holistic user experience can provide programmers with better support for what they want to achieve. These programming environments can create an engaging place to do new forms of informational work - resulting in enjoyable, creative, and productive experiences with programming.

Topics of Interest

In the workshop on Programming Abstractions and Interactive Notations, Tools, and Environments (PAINT), we want to discuss programming environments that support users in working with and creating notations and abstractions that matter to them. We are interested in the relationship between people centric notations and general-purpose programming languages and environments. How do we reflect the various experiences, needs, and priorities of the many people involved in programming — whether they call it that or not?

Areas of interest to PAINT include but are not limited to:

• Design and implementation of program representations and their means of interaction for end-users of all ages
• Design and implementation of visual programming environments
• Block-based environments and their application
• Projectional editors and their application
• Languages and their environments with mixed notations
• Meta tools or tool creation frameworks
• Methods to support working with abstractions, such as example-based programming
• Input and output devices for interacting with programming environments
• Theories of the above

Format

We plan to organize the workshop as a one-day workshop as a combination of short presentations and demos combined with structured feedback inspired by the Writer’s Workshop format:

• Participants are expected to have visited the materials beforehand.
• A moderator leads and directs the discussion.
• We review the pieces and their ideas one at a time.
• In general, the authors whose work is under review are silent.
• When discussing form, the following kinds of questions will be asked:
  • What did you gather / understand from the piece?
  • What aspects of the piece worked well to present the ideas?
  • What aspects need improvement? (These comments must be in the form of suggestions, not criticisms.)
• When discussing the ideas, the following kinds of questions will be asked:
  • What are the ideas?
  • Which ideas seem like good ones (and why)?
  • Which ideas need improvement or elimination? (Make positive suggestions when you can.)
• At the end the authors ask questions of the group.

This is the basic format, but we adjust the flow according to the needs of the group and the way the discussion is going. It is formal to ensure all the important points are covered.

For more information about the workshop format, please have a look at Richard P. Gabriel’s book “Writers’ Workshops & the World of Making Things”.

Types of Submissions

PAINT welcomes two types of contributions:

• Research papers should present new, previously unpublished research in one or more of the topics described above. Six to eight pages might be considered a good target for the contributions expected at PAINT. However, there is no page limit on submitted papers. As a general rule, the number of pages should match the size of the contribution. It is the responsibility of the authors to keep the reviewers interested and motivated to read the paper. Reviewers are under no obligation to read all or even a substantial portion of a paper if they do not find the initial part of it interesting. Papers must be prepared in LaTeX, adhering to the ACM format available at http://sigplan.org/Resources/Author/#acmart-format using the sigplan option.

• Demos show early implementations of novel and compelling tools, techniques, devices, and systems. Submissions should be in the form of a video no longer than 5 minutes that participants can watch prior to the workshop and then discuss.

Publication

Accepted papers are planned to be published in the ACM Digital Library.

AUTHORS TAKE NOTE:

The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of your conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

The Act of Programming in Collaborative Spaces

Douglas Engelbart posited that collaboration and better organization of tools and learning are key to augmenting human intelligence. This idea resonates with Einstein’s quote: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Together, these ideas point to the notion that computer systems should help people collaborate more effectively to solve larger problems that cannot be tackled by a single person alone.

Additionally, we consider a program to be the executable description of an idea, which unleashes the power of the computer as a dynamic medium.

The author’s group has been working on various interactive and collaborative software development environments based on these ideas. These include:

• Parks PDA: An early electronic theme park guide developed at Disney Imagineering R&D.
• Squeak Etoys: An end-user authoring tool featuring block-based programming.
• Shadama: An interactive particle programming system with dynamic code translation to GLSL and GPU code.
• STEPS Frank: A GUI framework described in an extremely concise form. Croquet Greenlight and Croquet Microverse: Real-time collaboration systems in 2D and 3D with live programming capabilities.
• Local AI UI framework: An interactively programmable UI system that integrates AI agents.

In this talk, the author will present these environments and the ideas behind them.

Yoshiki Ohshima

While attending graduate school at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yoshiki joined Walt Disney Imagineering R&D in 2000 as an intern, where he helped develop prototypes of Disney’s theme park attractions. He has also been involved in Alan Kay’s research group and participated in the research and development of the educational programming environment Squeak Etoys, eventually taking a leading role. Yoshiki has worked at the Viewpoints Research Institute, SAP Labs CDG, and Y Combinator Research, all of which were founded or co-founded by Dr. Kay. He co-founded the Croquet Corporation and developed several multi-user applications. He is a visiting professor at Shizuoka University and is involved in Mozilla’s local AI project. Yoshiki was awarded his PhD from the Tokyo Institute of Technology for designing and implementing a massively parallel particle programming system.