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Pegasus: first steps toward a naturalistic programming language

Published: 22 October 2006 Publication History

Abstract

In this article a new programming paradigm is discussed: naturalistic programming. Naturalistic Programming means writing computer programs with the help of natural language.The authors are convinced that contemporary programming techniques have reached a level where only a fundamental change of paradigm can develop them any further.Introducing, philosophical and epistemological issues related to programming and human thinking are discussed.After that, the programming language Pegasus is presented. It has been developed as a scientific prototype of a naturalistic programming language at the Darmstadt University of Technology.Pegasus can read natural language and create executable program files from that. In addition to that, Pegasus can automatically translate programs between different natural languages, by the time of writing: German and English.Subsequently, an overview on related work is given, followed by remarks on the advantages and disadvantages of naturalistic programming in general and Pegasus in particular.Finally, an outlook on future research concludes.

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cover image ACM Conferences
OOPSLA '06: Companion to the 21st ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Object-oriented programming systems, languages, and applications
October 2006
530 pages
ISBN:159593491X
DOI:10.1145/1176617
  • General Chair:
  • Peri Tarr,
  • Program Chair:
  • William R. Cook
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Published: 22 October 2006

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Author Tags

  1. aspect-oriented programming
  2. cognitive foundations of programming
  3. language design
  4. natural language programming
  5. naturalistic programming
  6. philosophical foundations of programming

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  • (2024)A Case for Feminism in Programming Language DesignProceedings of the 2024 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software10.1145/3689492.3689809(205-222)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2024
  • (2020)Evolution of Naturalistic Programming: A NeedNew Perspectives in Software Engineering10.1007/978-3-030-63329-5_13(185-198)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2020
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  • (2018)Pedagogical Significance of Natural Language Programming in Introductory ProgrammingJournal of Basic & Applied Sciences10.6000/1927-5129.2018.14.0914(62-71)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2018
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