A PROPOSED UNIFIED VISUAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE By NABOU DIENG Bachelor of Science in Computer Science Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 2005 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE December, 2010 A PROPOSED UNIFIED VISUAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE Thesis Approved: Dr. Blayne Mayfield Thesis Adviser Dr. John Chandler Dr. Johnson Thomas Dr. Mark Payton Dean of the Graduate College ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The successful preparation of this research would not have been possible without the invaluable contribution of my adviser, Dr Blayne Mayfield, nor would it have been possible without the great educational experience received from the professors of the Computer Science department of Oklahoma State University. For these reasons I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the members of my committee: Dr Blayne Mayfield, Dr John Chandler and Dr Johnson Thomas. I also would like to extend my sincere thanks to Dr Mansur Samadzadeh and Dr Nohpill Park, who have helped me tremendously during my university curriculum. I further would like to thank my mother Dr Khadijhatou Seck for her unconditional encouragements in my studies, my dear brother Ababacar Dieng for his absolute support and my brother Madior Dieng for always motivating me. Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the support and understanding throughout my life of my late farther Dr Papa Amath Dieng, who is not going to read these lines but who would have been proud to see me reach this milestone. iv Table of Contents Chapter Page LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... 7 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter I ......................................................................................................................................... 10 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 10 1.1 Visual Programming Languages ..................................................................................... 10 1.2 Issues of Visual Programming Languages ...................................................................... 11 1.3 Objectives and limits of this research ............................................................................ 12 1.4 The Approach ................................................................................................................. 12 1.5 Chapters overview ......................................................................................................... 12 Chapter II ........................................................................................................................................ 14 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................................................................................................. 14 2.1 Background of VPLs........................................................................................................ 14 2.2 VPL Classification System ............................................................................................... 16 2.3 VPL Grammar ................................................................................................................. 17 2.4 Cognitive Dimension of VPLs ......................................................................................... 20 2.5 Short VPL Survey ............................................................................................................ 21 2.6 Scaling up Visual Programming Languages .................................................................... 24 2.7 Iteration constructs in VPLs ........................................................................................... 26 2.8 Arrays representation in VPLs ........................................................................................ 28 2.9 Principles of programming languages ............................................................................ 30 Chapter III ....................................................................................................................................... 32 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................. 32 3.1 VPLs Selection Process ................................................................................................... 32 3.2 Analysis of principles for the selected VPLs ................................................................... 34 3.3 Variables and literals ...................................................................................................... 36 3.4 Arithmetic, Boolean, and Comparison Operations ........................................................ 42 3.5 Control Flow ................................................................................................................... 47 3.6 Input / Output ................................................................................................................ 55 3.7 Unified Visual Programming Language – UVPL .............................................................. 63 5 3.7.1 UVPL Programming Features ..................................................................................... 63 3.7.2 UVPL Programming Constructs .................................................................................. 71 3.7.3 Object-Oriented UVPL ................................................................................................ 77 3.7.4 Principles analysis of UVPL ......................................................................................... 81 Chapter IV ...................................................................................................................................... 86 TESTING .......................................................................................................................................... 86 4.1 Program Tests ................................................................................................................ 86 4.1.1 Program Test in Alice 2.2 ........................................................................................... 89 4.1.2 Program Test in Lumina Analytica 4.2 ....................................................................... 90 4.1.3 Program Test in Microsoft VPL 2.1 ............................................................................ 91 4.1.4 Program Test in Tersus 1.3 ......................................................................................... 92 4.1.5 Program Test in UVPL ................................................................................................ 93 4.1.6 Analysis of the Program Tests .................................................................................... 94 4.1.7 VPL Metrics for the Test Programs ............................................................................ 95 4.1.8 Test Programs Counts ................................................................................................ 98 4.1.9 VPL Metrics Values for the Test Programs ................................................................. 99 Chapter V ..................................................................................................................................... 103 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 103 5.1 Findings ........................................................................................................................ 103 5.2 Goals achieved ............................................................................................................. 106 5.3 Halstead measurements .............................................................................................. 107 5.4 Future works ................................................................................................................ 107 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................. 109 APPPENDICES ............................................................................................................................... 110 Appendix A: Program test in Alice ........................................................................................... 110 Appendix B: Program test in MS VPL ....................................................................................... 119 Appendix C: Program test in Tersus ......................................................................................... 126 Appendix D: Program test in Analytica .................................................................................... 134 Appendix E: Program test in UVPL ........................................................................................... 140 VITA .................................................................................................................................................. 1 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.2.1: Example of adding VPLs to the ACM CR system. Modified from figure 2.2.2 ......16 Figure 2.2.2: VPLs Classification system [3] ....................................................................17