Frame-Based Editing

Abstract

Block-based programming systems, such as Scratch or Alice, are the most popular environments for introducing young children to programming. However, mastery of text-based programming continues to be the educational goal for students who continue to program into their teenage years and beyond. Transitioning across the significant gap between the two editing styles presents a difficult challenge in schoollevel teaching of programming. We propose a new style of program manipulation to bridge the gap: frame-based editing. Frame-based editing has the resistance to errors and approachability of block-based programming while retaining the flexibility and more conventional programming semantics of text-based programming languages. In this paper, we analyse the issues involved in the transition from blocks to text and argue that they can be overcome by using framebased editing as an intermediate step. A design and implementation of a frame-based editor is provided.

Stride in BlueJ -- Computing for All in an Educational IDE

“…However, this transition is not without its difficulties, as students encounter a raft of potential errors and pitfalls that were not possible in a purely block-based environment. Previous work [6] has identified a number of significant challenges that students face:…”

“…A more detailed description of the features of Stride and its frame based editor is presented elsewhere [7].…”

“…When transitioning from block systems, the problems listed in section 4 are reduced. Some of the challenges remain and lead to new learning and insights (such as an extended command set, a more powerful object model, a more generic type system), while many of the incidental, purely syntactic complications are avoided [6].…”

“…We believe that this is too cumbersome for large program manipulation; our approach of having structure at high-levels and free-form text at lower levels is a more promising practical compromise. A fuller discussion of prior related work is presented elsewhere [7].…”

“…As a result, we added support for a new, more suitable language to BlueJ: a language called Stride [7]. Stride differs from traditional text-based languages mostly in its program manipulation support, provided by its frame-based editor.…”