Lambda in blocks languages: Lessons learned

Harvey, Brian; Mönig, Jens

doi:10.1109/blocks.2015.7368997

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…The reference framework for establishing the hypotheses of this study is based on the potential benefits of certain computer programming paradigms over others [48]. Some authors explored techniques for introducing parallelism concepts, anonymous procedures and higher-order functions into block languages [12][13][14]. In this particular case of application development, we analyse the ease and agility of using block-based versions of the map-reduce constructs from the functional programming paradigm versus the iterative constructs (i.e., loops) from the imperative programming paradigm.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The research claims and results are not directly transferable to professional, text-based programming languages or even to other not block-based, visual programming paradigms [10]. Second, the use of programming concepts that are relevant to create smart IoT applications (such as state initialisation [11], parallelism [12], anonymous functions [13] and higher-order functions [14]) were adapted to visual and block-based languages. However, there are no evidences of learning improvements thanks to the use of such end-user development (EUD) approaches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Block-Based Development of Mobile Learning Experiences for the Internet of Things

Ruiz-Rube

Mota

Person

et al. 2019

Sensors

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The Internet of Things enables experts of given domains to create smart user experiences for interacting with the environment. However, development of such experiences requires strong programming skills, which are challenging to develop for non-technical users. This paper presents several extensions to the block-based programming language used in App Inventor to make the creation of mobile apps for smart learning experiences less challenging. Such apps are used to process and graphically represent data streams from sensors by applying map-reduce operations. A workshop with students without previous experience with Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile app programming was conducted to evaluate the propositions. As a result, students were able to create small IoT apps that ingest, process and visually represent data in a simpler form as using App Inventor's standard features. Besides, an experimental study was carried out in a mobile app development course with academics of diverse disciplines. Results showed it was faster and easier for novice programmers to develop the proposed app using new stream processing blocks.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Block-Based Development of Mobile Learning Experiences for the Internet of Things

Ruiz-Rube

Mota

Person

et al. 2019

Sensors

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“…The study also found the C++ syntax for this new feature caused negative productivity impacts, alternative syntax or visual representations may harbor benefits, such as the graphical presentation in Snap! [10].…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Usability of Programming Languages

Myers

Stefik

Hanenberg

et al. 2016

Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Programming languages form the interface between programmers (the users) and the computation that they desire the computer to execute. Although studies exist for some aspects of programming language design (such as conditionals), other aspects have received little or no human factors evaluations. Designers thus have little they can rely on if they want to make new languages highly usable, and users cannot easily chose a language based on usability criteria. This SIG will bring together researchers and practitioners interested in increasing the depth and breadth of studies on the usability of programming languages, and ultimately in improving the usability of future languages.

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“…Some functional features have also been added to Snap! [12] and to a modified version of App Inventor [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Block Design for Introductory Functional Programming in Haskell

Poole

2019

2019 IEEE Blocks and Beyond Workshop (B&B)

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This paper describes the visual design of blocks for editing code in the functional language Haskell. The aim of the proposed blocks-based environment is to support students' initial steps in learning functional programming. Expression blocks and slots are shaped to ensure constructed code is both syntactically correct and preserves conventional use of whitespace. The design aims to help students learn Haskell's sophisticated type system which is often regarded as challenging for novice functional programmers. Types are represented using text, color and shape, and empty slots indicate valid argument types in order to ensure that constructed code is well-typed.

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Lambda in blocks languages: Lessons learned

Abstract: Abstract-In designing BYOB and Snap!, we wanted to extend the Scratch idea of visual metaphors for control structures to include anonymous procedures and higher order functions. We describe the iterations in the design leading to the current "grey ring" notation.

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Block-Based Development of Mobile Learning Experiences for the Internet of Things

Block-Based Development of Mobile Learning Experiences for the Internet of Things

Usability of Programming Languages

A Block Design for Introductory Functional Programming in Haskell

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