Programmable Applications: Interpreter Meets Interface

Abstract

Current fashion in "user-friendly" software design tends to place an over-reliance on direct manipulation interfaces. To be truly expressive (and thus truly user-friendly), applications need both learnable interfaces and domain-enriched languages that are accessible to the user. This paper discusses some of the design issues that arise in the creation of such programmable applications. As an example, the authors present "SchemePaint," a graphics application that combines a MacPaint-like interface with an interpreter for (a "graphics-enriched") Scheme.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1991
Accession Number
ADA260068

Entities

People

  • Michael Eisenberg

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Birds
  • Computer Languages
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Databases
  • Debugging
  • Engineering
  • Operating Systems
  • Programming Languages
  • Software Design
  • Software Development
  • Three Dimensional
  • Waveforms
  • Word Processors

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Strategic Security Studies