SPLASH 2023
Sun 22 - Fri 27 October 2023 Cascais, Portugal
Wed 25 Oct 2023 11:00 - 11:30 at Room VII - Beyond Text? Chair(s): L. Thomas van Binsbergen

Exploration of state and behavior is essential for understanding and debugging object-oriented programs. Many time-related questions about object communication – an object’s history – only arise in the context of a specific error in the here and now. At such a specific point in time, however, it is often distracting to involve omniscient debugging tools such as program tracers, because they do not integrate well with the programmer’s current focus on space-related questions and the informational cues at hand. In this paper, we present a novel way to provide a tangible, consolidated notion of both space and time in object exploration tools to make it more likely that programmers will use the available means to explore the evolution of particular objects. With programmers remaining informed about and in control of a program’s space and time, we promote the scientific method for debugging and leverage exploratory programming practices. We evaluate our model with hands-on experiences in the Squeak/Smalltalk programming system, using a program tracer that we have integrated into existing exploration tools to promote both spatial and temporal views. We believe that a clear, tangible notion of spacetime can help tool designers provide a better programming experience for those constantly recurring “What happened to this object?” situations.

Wed 25 Oct

Displayed time zone: Lisbon change

11:00 - 12:30
Beyond Text? Onward! Papers at Room VII
Chair(s): L. Thomas van Binsbergen University of Amsterdam
11:00
30m
Talk
Time-awareness in Object-exploration Tools: Toward In Situ Omniscient DebuggingRemote
Onward! Papers
Christoph Thiede Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Germany, Marcel Taeumel University of Potsdam; Hasso Plattner Institute, Robert Hirschfeld University of Potsdam; Hasso Plattner Institute
Link to publication DOI
11:30
30m
Talk
Code Merging Using Transformations and Member Identity
Onward! Papers
André R. Teles University Institute of Lisbon, André L. Santos University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal
12:00
30m
Talk
Scalable Spreadsheet-driven End-User Applications with Incremental Computation
Onward! Papers
Sean Hadar Technion, Shachar Itzhaky Technion