Approaches to Automatic Programming

Abstract

This chapter examines various approaches to automatic programming and presents several myths related to it, including end-user-oriented automatic programming systems do not need domain knowledge; end-user-oriented, general-purpose, fully automatic programming is possible; requirements can be complete; programming is a serial process; there will be no more programming; and there will be no more programming in the large. It discusses the three fundamental technical issues in automatic programming that must be addressed in the design of any automatic programming system: what does the user see, how does the system work, and what does the system know. From the user's perspective, the most prominent aspect of an automatic programming system is the language used to communicate with it. The chapter discusses the range of possibilities using as an example the simple problem of determining the value of an octal number represented as a string. Academic research on automatic programming is focused on developing techniques that can support broad coverage, fully automatic programming. Work in the commercial arena has focused on goals that are more modest and has been able to make significant steps toward automatic programming based on procedural methods.