The research question to be answered in this thesis is - To what extent is it possible to improve collaborative software development through the use of diagrams without requiring people to learn computer languages?
My research involves enabling computer literate people who aren't programmers to create software. The means for this is construction of visual diagrams that represent the task, in a similar way to how family trees and taxonomies can be represented as diagrams. The visual interface is available from a website and the research involves translating this to code. The aim is to enable programming without requiring people to learn computer languages. I am particularly interested in making it possible for a wider range of people to collaborate on software development.
The methodology for this is automation by translation from a human level of abstraction to software.
The theory behind this thesis is that it is possible to create a systematic diagrammatic representation of logical thought to enable representation of user's wishes to a computer.
C.S. Peirce (1906) stated in 'Prolegomena to an Apology for Pragmaticism' "Come on, my Reader, and let us construct a diagram to illustrate the general course of thought; I mean a system of diagrammatization by means of which any course of thought can be represented with exactitude". That is the purpose of this research, but to limit the scope and so make application of this theory testable the research is restricted mainly to engineers (because they often think in terms of diagrams) and to the domain of modelling (which often requires diagrams). So the aim is to apply the research first where it can have the most use and encourage others to expand it for other domains and other users. This research is intended to simplify computing for computer literate non-programmers, this includes many engineers. The main research area is enabling users such as engineers to model the problems they encounter in manufacturing and design. However, the wider aim is to prototype research for enabling a larger range of software users to model their problems. The intention is to create collaborative tools that allow users to develop software in a way they will be familiar with from their use of spreadsheets.
The hypothesis is that it is possible to create an end-user programming environment, usable by non-programmers, which can have a wide variety of uses. The aim of this research is to create a modelling system that can be edited by computer literate non-programmers, and so demonstrate an application of end-user programming that could be used in a more generic way. The possibilities for a generic user-driven programming environment will be explained. It is possible to create an end-user visual programming environment using Semantic Web technologies, especially for modelling of information, where this approach is well suited. All that is necessary is to link the information visually via equations, and store these results for reuse and collaboration. This can make translation from humans to computers easier and more reliable than current software systems and languages. The use of Semantic Web languages as programming languages would assist greatly with interoperability as these languages are standardised for use in a wide range of computer systems.
The problem examined in this thesis is that of allowing domain experts to create decision support software. This is a way of testing the assumption that these domain expert's thoughts can be represented in a systematic diagrammatic way, and then translated to computer code. The main emphasis is on engineers, who experience problems in creating and sharing their software. The alternatives they have for creation of software are spreadsheets, which do not have collaboration and information modelling abilities sufficiently built in, or complex software that needs considerable expertise to use, and often still has insufficient collaboration or information modelling capabilities.
Peirce, C.S. - 1906. Prolegomena to an Apology for Pragmaticism http://www.existentialgraphs.com/peirceoneg/prolegomena.htm
