COMPARISON OF THE PRODUCTIVITY OF DIAGRAMMATIC AND TEXTUAL PROGRAMMING

THE PRESENT TREND IN HUMAN/COMPUTER INTERFACES IS THE USE OF VISUAL, ICONIC MANIPULATION FOR COMPUTER CONTROL. THE APPLICATION OF A VISUAL INTERFACE CAN BE ADAPTED TO USE IN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH AND TESTING PROGRAM WILL BE CARRIED OUT TO DETERMINE IF A DIAGRAMMATIC PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE PROVIDES AS MUCH PRODUCTIVITY AND AS HIGH A QUALITY OF SOFTWARE AS TEXTUAL LANGUAGES. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PHASE I RESEARCH INCLUDE THE DETERMINATION OF THE LANGUAGE MOST SUITED FOR THE TARGET APPLICATION, THE SELECTION OF A PROPER COMPILER FOR THAT LANGUAGE, THE ADAPTATION OF THE EXISTING VISUAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE AVAILABLE AT ARCOVA TO THE LANGUAGE SELECTED, THE CREATION OF A TESTING PROGRAM, THE HUMAN TESTING, AND THE ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS. A REPORT WILL BE COMPILED THAT EVALUATES THE DEVELOPMENT TIME, LEVEL OF EFFORT, AND QUALITY OF RESULTING PROGRAMS AS DETERMINED FROM THE TESTING PROGRAM. THE LEVEL OF EFFORT REQUIRED BY ARCOVA IS REDUCED BY THE AVAILABILITY OF THE EXISTING VISUAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE SYSTEM DEVELOPED IN-HOUSE. A MORE COMPLETE AND PROFESSIONAL TESTING SCHEME CAN BE CARRIED OUT DUE TO THE DECREASE IN SETUP AND SOFTWARE DESIGN EFFORT.