PPIC is an informal meetup to muse on programming interfaces and on, roughly, how to fill the gap between spreadsheets and general-purpose textual programming. The format varies week to week: one week we might discuss a paper or talk, the next someone might present work in progress for feedback, and the next we might argue about some spicy question like, "Do end-users even want to automate their tasks?". Visitors welcome, even if you're not in the Pacific time zone!
To get announcements and the Zoom link, join the Google group.
To suggest a topic, open a Github issue. To edit this page, click here.
For late summer 2025, PPIC meets on Monday at 1pm in DIB 311 at UCSD and on Zoom.
| Date | Topic | Leader |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 25 | Debugging Lit vs Fancy Programming Interfaces, Part 4 Reacher | Brian |
| Aug 18 | Debugging Lit vs Fancy Programming Interfaces, Part 3 Reacher Formative Study Reacher | Brian |
| Aug 4 | Debugging Lit vs Fancy Programming Interfaces, Part 2 Kubelka et al 2019 Whyline Formative Study Whyline for Alice Whyline for Java | Brian |
| July 28 | Debugging Lit vs Fancy Programming Interfaces Sillito et al 2008 | Brian |
For spring and early summer 2025, PPIC met on Tuesday at 2pm.
| Date | Topic | Leader |
|---|---|---|
| June 17 | Cognitive Dimensions of Notation, #12-13 Paper (Green and Petre 1996) | Brian |
| June 3 | Cognitive Dimensions of Notation, #10-11 Paper (Green and Petre 1996) | Brian |
| May 27 | VL/HCC Submission Recap | Anyone who submitted to VL/HCC |
| May 20 | Cognitive Dimensions of Notation, #7-9 Paper (Green and Petre 1996) | Brian |
| May 6 | Cognitive Dimensions of Notation, #5-6 Paper (Green and Petre 1996) The Expression Problem | Brian |
| Apr 29 | Cognitive Dimensions of Notation, #3-4 Paper (Green and Petre 1996) | Brian |
| Apr 22 | Cognitive Dimensions of Notation, #1-2 Paper (Green and Petre 1996) | Brian |
| Apr 15 | GUIs for JSON DSLs Prong (McNutt 2023) Ivy (McNutt 2021) | Brian |
For winter 2025, PPIC met on Fridays at 1pm.
| Date | Topic | Leader |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 21 | Programming by Demonstration (PBD) for Intro Programming. Algot (Weidmann 2022) Algot (Thorgeirsson 2024) AlgoTouch (Frison 2015) | Brian |
| Mar 14 | Bespoke Visualization GUIs Gold SageBrush Drawing Dynamic Visualizations Lyra iVisDesigner Data-Driven Guides Charticulator Data Illustrator iVolver Cuscus | Brian |
| Mar 7 | Transforming between equivalent program specifications (virtual whiteboard notes) | Elliot |
| Feb 28 | Collapsing Output & Code into a Single Media. ħirba' - early prototype (Samosa 2025) Boxer demo Self: The Movie; (1995) Forms/3 | Brian |
| Feb 14 | Loops💘Tables II | Brian |
| Jan 31 | Loops💘Tables I | Brian |
| Dec 6 | PbD Part 2: Unambiguous Intent. Pygmalion (Smith 1975) Drawing Dynamic Visualizations (Victor 2013) Wrangler (Kandel 2001) Subsequently (Goethals 2024) | Josh |
| Nov 22 | Programming by Demonstration (PBD). Why PBD Systems Fail (Lau 2009) Eager (Cypher 1991) Excel macros Claude's computer use | Brian |
| Nov 15 | First Meeting: What are the open questions in our field? | Brian |
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