Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!feeder01.blueworldhosting.com!border2.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!news.iecc.com!.POSTED!nerds-end From: "Derek M. Jones" Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: parsability and human factors Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 12:44:30 +0000 Organization: virginmedia.com Lines: 54 Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <15-02-023@comp.compilers> References: <10-11-017@comp.compilers> <15-02-009@comp.compilers> <15-02-011@comp.compilers> <15-02-013@comp.compilers> <15-02-016@comp.compilers> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.iecc.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: miucha.iecc.com 1423619174 34088 2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970 (11 Feb 2015 01:46:14 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 01:46:14 +0000 (UTC) Keywords: syntax, design Posted-Date: 10 Feb 2015 20:46:13 EST X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:1525 Glen, > The talk was titled "The Programming Language Wars". > > http://web.cs.unlv.edu/stefika/Papers.php and the answer is to invent another language! http://www.quorumlanguage.com/ > is a list of some of the papers by the author, and > > paper number 7 is one people might find interesting. Most of this paper is based on two self reporting surveys, the sort of thing pollsters use to rate public opinion. The experiment that was run for the second part of the paper looks very sloppy. > There is very little research into how people actually use features in > programming languages, though all designers seem to already know > without studying. Some work is analyzed here: http://shape-of-code.coding-guidelines.com/2014/08/27/evidence-for-the-benefits-of-strong-typing-where-is-it/ There is a growing body of measurements of the use of programming language features. Here is a very good one on the use of eval in Javascript: http://the.gregor.institute/papers/ecoop2011-richards-eval.pdf It is now common to encounter papers that measure stuff and arm wave about finding power laws and how interesting this must be. Sometimes they even check to see whether the data does in fact follow a power law: http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/491.html What is generally missing is any theory for the patterns seen. A step up from arm waving here: http://shape-of-code.coding-guidelines.com/2013/05/17/preferential-attachment-applied-to-frequency-of-accessing-a-variable/ Of course developer decisions on what variables to use are not based on probabilities, this is an emergent behavior of higher level, as yet unknown, processes. > He did actual tests with both experienced and new programmers. The academic definition of experienced is often very different from that used by industry. It is common to hear third year undergraduates labeled as experts and first year students as novices; industry would regard them both as novices. As far as I can see in this paper experienced subjects are the ones enrolled in computer science courses and inexperienced subjects are those not enrolled in such courses. Thanks for the pointer, but I have deleted my copy of this paper.