End-user software engineering

Abstract

End-user software engineering does not mimic the traditional approaches of segregated support for each element of the software engineering life cycle, nor does it ask the user to think in those terms. Instead, it employs a feedback loop sup-ported by behind-the-scenes reasoning, with which the system and user collaborate to monitor dependability as the end user's program evolves. This approach helps guard against the introduction of faults 1 in the user's program and if faults have already been introduced, helps the user detect and locate them. Because spreadsheet languages are the most widely used end-user programming languages to date-in fact, they may be the most widely used of all programming languages-we have prototyped COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM September 2004/Vol. 47, No. 9 53A strategy that allows end users the ability to perform quality control methods as well as inspires them to enhance the dependability of their software themselves.End-user programming has become the most common form of programming in use today [2], but there has been little investigation into the dependability of the programs end users create. This is problematic because the dependability of these programs can be very important; in some cases, errors in end-user programs, such as formula errors in spreadsheets, have cost millions of dollars. (For example, see www.theregister.co.uk/content/67/31298.html or panko.cba.hawaii.edu/ssr/Mypapers/whatknow.htm.) We have been investigating ways to address this problem by developing a software engineering paradigm viable for end-user programming, an approach we call end-user software engineering. 1 We follow the standard terminology for discussing program errors. A "failure" is an incorrect output, and a "fault" is the incorrect element(s) of source code causing the failure. For example, an answer of "D" in a spreadsheet cell if the student's grade should actually be a "B" is a failure; the incorrect formula, such as omission of one of the student's test grades in the sum upon which his/her letter grade is based, is the fault.

Taxonomy-driven prototyping of home automation applications: A novice-programmer visual language and its evaluation

“…Doing so could later lead to a programming-by-example development process [44]. This research direction could also leverage recent advances in end-user software engineering [45]. These works introduce various techniques (e.g., interactive testing and adapted debugging tools) to guide the end-user in writing correct applications using visual tools.…”

Modding as an Open Source Approach to Extending Computer Game Systems

“…Some started from the OSS that was previously the CSS platform of the original games. However, the content assets (e.g., in-game artwork) for many of these CSS-then-OSS games are not covered by the GPL, and so user-developers must still acquire a licensed copy of the original CSS game if its content is to be reused in some way 4 . Nonetheless, some variants of the user-created GPL'd games now feature their own content that is limited/protected by Creative Commons licenses.…”

New Frontiers of Reverse Engineering

“…One example is represented by the need for analyzing artifacts produced by what Burnett et al defined as end-user programming [18], i.e., the development of software by using productivity tools. Assets such as word processors and spreadsheets have to be considered as critical as the source code: errors in formulae or macros would cost millions of dollars.…”