Towards a Data Model of End-User Programming of Applications

摘要

End-user programming produces applications that can produce and/or consume data. An end-user can be a software enthusiast or non-programmer. In this paper end-users are understood to be non-programmers that are interested in creating applications for their personal needs and daily tasks. An interesting research question is how the input and output data of end-users' applications should be represented? What kind of a data model is needed for this data? And how this input and output data can be utilised? Firstly, the data model should be designed for end-users so that the data model is easy to comprehend and utilise by nonprogrammers. Secondly, the data model should be suitable for SW professionals that make functionalities available for end-user programming. Thirdly, the data model should be designed so that it is possible to provide reusable processing components for input/output data represented via this model. This paper discusses these three research questions and outlines a data model, called the Tiles4Data data model that is designed for the above requirements.