The practices of programming

© 2016 IEEE.How diverse are the ways that programming is done? While a variety of accounts exist, each appears in isolation, neither framed in terms of a distinct practice, nor as one of many such practices. In this work we explore accounts spanning software engineering, bricolage/tinkering, sketching, live coding, code-bending, and hacking. These practices of programming are analyzed in relation to ongoing research, and in particular HCI's 'practice turn', offering connections to accounts of practice in other contexts than programming. The conceptualization of practice helps to interpret recent interest in program code as craft material, and also offers potential to inform programming education, tools and work as well as future research

Introductory Graphics Programming: Transition to IMPACT

Computer programming is a difficult field for students to learn, while the most effective teaching strategies are not known conclusively. Educator’s opinions vary as to the optimal approach. It is largely a point of agreement however that programming, as an applied field, is learned more quickly as a function of practice. Traditional lecture approaches impose a passive mindset upon the student and uses valuable time. This study posits that students might be better served by minimizing student time passively listening to lectures and instead keeping students actively engaged at the keyboard work through programming problems individually and in small groups. The IMPACT model helps facilitate this move away from a purely instructor-led model to a more student-centered model. Both affective and performance metrics are gathered and analyzed in the transition to the new teaching model. As the first IMPACT class, run in a true IMPACT room, is currently in session, study results are pending

XS, S, M, L: Creative Text Generators of Different Scales

Creative text generation projects of different sizes (in terms of lines of code and length of development time) are described. “Extra-small,” “small,” “medium,” and “large” projects are discussed as participating in the practice of creative computing differently. Different ways in which these projects have circulated and are being used in the community of practice are identified. While large-scale projects have clearly been important in advancing creative text generation, the argument presented here is that the other types of projects are also valuable and that they are undervalued (particularly in computer science and strongly related fields) by current structures of higher education and academic communication – structures which could be changed

Writing the Live Coding Book

This paper is a speculation on the relationship between coding and writing, and the ways in which technical innovations and capabilities enable us to rethink each in terms of the other. As a case study, we draw on recent experiences of preparing a book on live coding, which integrates a wide range of personal, historical, technical and critical perspectives. This book project has been both experimental and reflective, in a manner that allows us to draw on critical understanding of both code and writing, and point to the potential for new practices in the future

Fifty years of the Psychology of Programming

This paper reflects on the evolution (past, present and future) of the ‘psychology of programming' over the 50 year period of this anniversary issue. The International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS) has been a key venue for much seminal work in this field, including its first foundations, and we review the changing research concerns seen in publications over these five decades. We relate this thematic evolution to research taking place over the same period within more specialist communities, especially the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG), the Empirical Studies of Programming series (ESP), and the ongoing community in Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC). Many other communities have interacted with psychology of programming, both influenced by research published within the specialist groups, and in turn influencing research priorities. We end with an overview of the core theories that have been developed over this period, as an introductory resource for new researchers, and also with the authors’ own analysis of key priorities for future research

So you think you can't draw?:a hands-on introductory course on sketching in HCI techniques

Hand-drawn sketching is a practice as old as our ancestors. From cave painting to picture-books, we have explored the world with our visual senses. Within Human-Computer Interaction, sketches can be used to document, ideate, and describe concepts between researcher, user, or client. Attendees will leave the course with the confidence to engage actively with sketching on an everyday basis in their research practice

Sketching in HCI:Hands-on course of sketching techniques

Freehand sketching is a valuable process, input, output, and tool, often used by people to communicate and express ideas, as well as document, explore and describe concepts between researcher, user, or client. Sketches are fast, easy to create, and - by varying their fidelity - can be used in all areas of HCI. Sketching in HCI will explore and demonstrate themes around sketching in HCI with the aim of producing tangible outputs. Attendees will leave the course with the confidence to engage actively with sketching on an everyday basis in their research practice