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State of the PPIG

What do we think we know about the psychology of programming?

Those of you familiar with Internet FAQs will know how they serve the useful function of answering frequently asked questions in a fluid group; when new members join any specialist group, one often finds that certain issues are covered over and over and that it is sometimes hard to move beyond these frequently occurring issues to explore new areas.

Although certain issues regarding the psychology of programming have recurred in workshop presentations and papers over the years, they often appear to be addressed without continuity; not every paper given this year refers to pertinent results reported in previous years.

In order to crystallise PPIG's acquired knowledge, a two-and-a-half day workshop, sponsored by the PPIG, is being organised. It will be a working workshop which will produce an edited book giving an overview of the current state of research on the psychology of programming. The book is meant both as a snapshot of current thinking and as a way in for those new to the domain.

The book will comprise a collection of analytic literature surveys on topics in the psychology of programming, tied together by short, informal essays on over-riding issues, and accompanied by good, comprehensive bibliographies on the topics covered.

Workshop model

All literature survey chapters will be completed and distributed in advance of the workshop. The workshop will be a combination of discussion and collaborative reporting. Discussions will draw on the submitted literature surveys in order to highlight broader issues and put the domain into context. In order to encourage productive discussion, places at the workshop will be limited. In this way, the book manuscript will be ready for final editing and submission to the publisher at the end of the workshop.

Workshop topics

Topics include (but are not limited to):

programming tasks (e.g., comprehension, creation, documentation, modification, debugging, testing)
reasoning and planning (e.g., strategies, programming plans, formal reasoning, display-based reasoning)
cognitive models
programming notations and representations
programming paradigms
learning programming
software engineering (e.g., programming in the large, re-use, maintenance, scale, specification)
social and organizational issues
collaboration (including CSCW)
programming tools (e.g., environments, CASE, editors, navigation tools)
differences among programmers

Bids will be invited from both authors and readers:

authors: Although some chapters will be by invitation, those interested in writing may propose a literature survey. Contributors will be asked to send a short (1-2 page) proposal to the organizers. Topics can be from the above list or can be proposed. Contributors will normally be expected to attend the workshop and will have guaranteed places.
readers: Qualified readers will also be invited to review and comment on chapters in advance of the workshop.

Organisers

Marian Petre
Robert Rist
Frank Wales
Diana Bental