User-Centered Programming Language Design: A Course-Based Case Study

Recently, user-centered methods have been proposed to improve the design of programming languages. In order to explore what benefits these methods might have for novice programming language designers, we taught a collection of user-centered programming language design methods to a group of eight students. We observed that natural programming and usability studies helped the students refine their language designs and identify opportunities for improvement, even in the short duration of a course project.