Your Wish is My Command: Programming by Example

Henry Lieberman

Morgan Kaufmann, 2001 - Computers - 416 pages

As user interface designers, software developers, and yes-as users, we all know the frustration that comes with using "one size fits all" software from off the shelf. Repeating the same commands over and over again, putting up with an unfriendly graphical interface, being unable to program a new application that you thought of yourself-these are all common complaints. The inflexibility of today's computer interfaces makes many people feel like they are slaves to their computers. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Why can't technology give us more "custom-fitting" software?

On the horizon is a new technology that promises to give ordinary users the power to create and modify their own programs. Programming by example (PBE) is a technique in which a software agent records a user's behavior in an interactive graphical interface, then automatically writes a program that will perform that behavior for the user.

Your Wish is My Command: Programming by Example takes a broad look at this new technology. In these nineteen chapters, programming experts describe implemented systems showing that PBE can work in a wide variety of application fields. They include the following:

The renowned authors and their editor believe that PBE will some day make it possible for interfaces to effectively say to the user, "Your wish is my command!"

* Text and graphical editing
* Web browsing
* Computer-aided design
* Teaching programming to children
* Programming computer games
* Geographical information systems

Contents

• Novice Programming Comes of Age: x
• Generalizing by Removing Detail How Any Program Can Be Created by Working with Examples: 6
• Demonstrational Interfaces Sometimes You Need a Little Intelligence Sometimes You Need a Lot: 30
• Web Browsing by Example: 46
• Trainable Information Agents for the Web: 72
• End Users and CIS A Demonstration Is Worth a Thousand Words: 100
• Bringing Programming by Demonstration to CAD Users: 120
• Demonstrating the Hidden Features that Make an Application Work: 148
• A Reporting Tool Using Programming by Example for Format Designation: 162
• Composition by Example: 178
• Learning Repetitive TextEditing Procedures with SMARTedit: 196
• Training Agents to Recognize Text by Example: 214
• SWYN A Visual Representation for Regular Expressions: 232
• Learning Users Habits to Automate Repetitive Tasks: 258
• Domain Independent Programming by Demonstration in Existing Applications: 284
• StimulusResponse PBD Demonstrating When as Well as What: 308
• Pavlov Where PBD Meets Macromedias Director: 332
• Programming by Analogous Examples: 338
• Visual Generalization in Programming by Example: 358

About the author

Henry Lieberman is Research Scientist at the MIT Media Laboratory.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Your Wish is My Command: Programming by Example; Morgan Kaufmann series in interactive technologies; The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies, Stuart Card, Jonathan Grudin, Mark Linton, Jakob Nielsen, Tim Skelly, Series Editors Series
• Editor: Henry Lieberman
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann, 2001
• ISBN: 1558606882, 9781558606883
• Length: 416 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Software Development & Engineering / General; Computers / Virtual Worlds