ITR: Multiple-view Programming

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Proposal Number: 0313401TITLE: Multi-view ProgrammingPI: Andrew P. BlackABSTRACTThis project aims to liberate programmers from representing programs as linear streams of text, and to enable a qualitatively different way of programming.People understand complex artifacts more easily if they can be viewed in multiple ways. An architect seeking to describe the design of a building does not give her client a single drawing: she provides site models, building models, plans, elevations, perspectives and interior views. Each of these representations shows some aspect of the proposed building to best advantage, while ignoring or glossing over details that are irrelevant to that aspect. This project will attempt to do the same thing for programs.The first phase of the research is envisioning the views: as programmers we are so used to flat text that it is hard to open our minds to other possibilities. The second phase will integrate multiple views with existing languages and program development environments.By directing the awesome power of IT to the problems of creating, understanding, changing, and testing software itself, we believe that we can begin a revolution in software production that is just as all-encompassing as the revolution that IT has created in almost every other activity in our society.