PADL

Direct manipulation interfaces are developed in many domains where objects have inherently visual representations. After prototyping phases, however, relying solely on direct manipulation can lead to repetitive copy-and-paste tasks and, furthermore, can make it difficult for expert users to manipulate complex content in reusable and composable ways. What is needed are software interfaces that allow users to freely mix between programmatic and direct manipulation, a combination we dub prodirect manipulation, each of which can be used for its distinct strengths.

As an example of this vision, we present the Sketch-n-Sketch prodirect manipulation editor for designing Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) images. In Sketch-n-Sketch, the user first defines a program in a small functional language that generates an output SVG canvas, and then directly manipulates the output canvas while the system infers program updates, in real-time, to match the changes. To achieve this novel workflow, we employ a lightweight, trace-based program synthesis algorithm, together with a set of design decisions that mitigate ambiguities without user intervention. We demonstrate that Sketch-n-Sketch allows a variety of examples to be designed and maintained more easily than when using purely programmatic or purely direct manipulation tools alone.

(Joint work with Brian Hempel, Mitch Spradlin, and Jacob Albers)

Ravi Chugh

University of Chicago

I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. I enjoy developing and deploying programming language technology — type systems, synthesis algorithms, and other program analysis techniques — for applications in software engineering and human-computer interaction.

Peter Müller

ETH Zurich

Since August 2008 Peter Müller has been full Professor in Computer Science (since 2003 Assistant Professor for Software Component Technology) at ETH Zurich.

He was born in 1972 in Ingolstadt, Germany. In 1991 he started his studies in Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich, where he finished his undergraduate studies with a Diploma in Computer Science in 1996. From 1996 to 2001 he worked on his Ph.D. with Prof. Arnd Poetzsch-Heffter as supervisor, first at the Technical University Munich and later at the University of Hagen. In 2001 he received the title Dr. rer. nat. from the University of Hagen with a dissertation on “Modular Specification and Verification of Object-Oriented Programs”. Before joining ETH, Peter Müller worked as an IT project manager at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. From June 2007 to July 2008, he held a position as Researcher at Microsoft Research, Redmond.

The objective of Peter Müller-s research is to enable programmers to develop correct software. To achieve this goal, he works on programming languages, methods, and tools.