TrueGrid: Code the table, tabulate the data

Spreadsheet systems are live programming environments. Both the data and the code are right in front you, and if you edit either of them, the effects are immediately visible. Unfortunately, spreadsheets lack mechanisms for abstraction, such as classes, function definitions etc. Programming languages excel at abstraction, but most mainstream languages or integrated development environments (IDEs) do not support the interactive, live feedback loop of spreadsheets. As a result, exploring and testing of code is cumbersome and indirect. In this paper we propose a method to bring both worlds closer together, by juxtaposing ordinary code and spreadsheet-like grids in the IDE, called TrueGrid. Using TrueGrid spreadsheet cells can be programmed with a fully featured programming language. Spreadsheet users then may enjoy benefits of source code, including added abstractions, syntax highlighting, version control, etc. On the other hand, programmers may leverage the grid for interactive exploring and testing of code. We illustrate these benefits using a prototype implementation of True- Grid that runs in the browser and uses Javascript as a programming language

Beyond ASCII -Parsing Programs with Graphical Presentations

Abstract. Proxima is a generic structure editor suitable for a wide range of structured document types. It allows edit operations on the document structure as well as on its screen representation (i.e. free-text editing), without the need to switch between the two modes. The system maintains a bidirectional mapping between the document structure and its presentation. Besides obvious applications, such as word-processor and spread-sheet editors, Proxima is especially well-suited for defining source editors for programming languages. Presentation-oriented edit operations require that an edited presentation can be parsed to yield an updated document structure. However, conventional parsing techniques cannot readily be applied, since presentations in Proxima are not restricted to text but may also contain graphical elements. For example, an exponential may be presented as 3 2 . Although this graphical presentation may not be directly edited at the presentation level, its components may. Hence, instead of simply parsing the changed representation, we have to take into account the existing structure. This paper explains the scanning and parsing process for presentations that are a possibly nested combination of text and graphical elements. For textual parts of the presentation a Haskell combinator parser needs to be provided

Beyond ASCII - Parsing Programs with Graphical Presentations

Proxima is a generic structure editor suitable for a wide range of structured document types. It allows edit operations on the document structure as well as on its screen representation (i.e. free-text editing), without the need to switch between the two modes. The system maintains a bidirectional mapping between the document structure and its presentation. Besides obvious applications, such as word-processor and spread-sheet editors, Proxima is especially well-suited for defining source editors for programming languages. Presentation-oriented edit operations require that an edited presentation can be parsed to yield an updated document structure. However, conventional parsing techniques cannot readily be applied, since presentations in Proxima are not restricted to text but may also contain graphical elements. For example, an exponential may be presented as 32. Although this graphical presentation may not be directly edited at the presentation level, its components may. Hence, instead of simply parsing the changed representation, we have to take into account the existing structure. This paper explains the scanning and parsing process for presentations that are a possibly nested combination of text and graphical elements. For textual parts of the presentation a Haskell combinator parser needs to be provided. The parser for graphical parts, on the other hand, is constructed by Proxima, based on information in the presentation. White space in the presentation can be handled automatically, if desired