Presentation: "Tiles, Wires and the Challenge of End-User Programming"

Track: END-USER PROGRAMMING / Time: Wednesday 10:15 - 11:15 / Location: Lille Sal, Musikhuset

The challenge of end-user programming is simple:  Allow non-programmers to program.  An examination of this apparent paradox reveals some common assumptions and suggests ways to make progress for users regardless of what we mean by programming.

This talk covers some history and theory of non/programming and looks at techniques that have worked to give end-users control in the world of computers.  The point that everyone is an end-user will be raised and not completely dealt with.

Keywords: End-user programming, Tile programming,  Visual programming, Fabrik, Pipes, EToys

Target Audience: This talk should interest anyone designing, or wishing for, systems that give end-users control over computer processes in industry, business, education, and art.

Dan Ingalls, The principal architect of five generations of Smalltalk environment

Dan Ingalls

Biography: Dan Ingalls

Dan Ingalls is the principal architect of five generations of Smalltalk environments. He designed the byte-coded virtual machine that made Smalltalk practical in 1976. He later conceived a Smalltalk written in itself and made portable and efficient by a Smalltalk-to-C translator, now known as the Squeak open-source Smalltalk. Dan also invented BitBlt, the general-purpose graphical operation that underlies most bitmap graphics systems today, as well as pop-up menus. His most recent work, the Lively Kernel, is a dynamic graphics and programming environment that runs entirely in a browser. Able to save its results and even new versions of itself as web pages, if offers the promise that wherever there is the web there is authoring. Dan received his B.A. in Physics from Harvard University, and his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He is a recipient of the ACM Grace Hopper Award, and the ACM Software Systems Award.

Dan has recently joined SAP and is a member of the Chief Scientist team guiding the company’s technology vision, direction and execution.
 
Software Passion: Good software brings mathematics to life.  If it doesn't it isn't
 
  
Links:
Twitter: @DanIngalls
Sun Contrarian Mind-article: http://labs.oracle.com/minds/2007-1107/
Lively Kernel: http://www.lively-kernel.org/
Squeak, open source imlementation of Smalltalk: http://www.squeak.org/
FLOSS Weekly 29: http://twit.tv/floss29
Dan Ingalls presenting OCR of Sanskrit with his dad in 1980: http://vimeo.com/47146