Hi everyone!  As part of my Master's thesis work, I am experimenting with a simultaneously visual and textual IDE interface to help programmers who are visio-spatial thinkers code more intuitively.

For this, I need some help from all of you Processing friends!  My first preliminary user study aims to collect idiosyncratic visual depictions of code -- namely you get to illustrate your code on paper and pencil.  Participants will be compensated for their time, and the user study activity can be done remotely on a flexible schedule.  I think it will also be a fun experience to think about code in a different way.

Project Homepage
media.mit.edu (slash) ~achang (slash) kaleido

Preliminary Study Information
when: January 13-25, 2010
who: visual-thinkers who program
what: drawing a series of visual depictions of code; entire activity should require about 1 hour to complete, and you can do it anywhere you like
compensation: $15*
how: email kaleido@media.mit.edu with your name and a short sentence about your programming and visual art experience

Please join, and please help me distribute the information!

Many thanks,
Agnes Chang

*Edit: The amount has increased since the initial announcement; we've been able to secure a little more funding to better reimburse you for volunteering your time and effort.

Would love to download and read the pdf but the link doesnt work (same with some images)

I was talking about the link to the pdf she had on this site. But it seems to be fixed.

edit: there are still typos in the image url. its ppng instead of png...

Wow, I'm definitely going to be following your research. There is a serious need for an IDE that is both visual and textual, us dual mode thinkers really need it! This is something I've been thinking about for years now.

A while back I made a fairly simple (Think Logo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language) ) real-time interpreted graphical scripting language called L-Script in processing, and since have been thinking about ways to extend it into something a bit more like what you've been working on. The major difference in what I was envisioning was to have the code more inline in the blocks instead of highlighted next to it, with a focus on development of modules separately in real time for instant feedback, and then having that same code parsed into C++/Java/Other high level code to be used later in a larger system.

I think this could have a major impact on software development because the visual aspect is especially well suited to show object lifetimes, variable flow, or even the ability to see concurrent code paths. More like a factory (in R.L.) and less like a simple set of instructions.

Can't wait to try this out!

Jack Kern