The Human Factors Impact of Programming Error Messages (Dagstuhl Seminar 22052)

Authors Brett A. Becker, Paul Denny, Janet Siegmund, Andreas Stefik, Eddie Antonio Santos and all authors of the abstracts in this report



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Author Details

Brett A. Becker
  • University College Dublin, IE
Paul Denny
  • University of Auckland, NZ
Janet Siegmund
  • TU Chemnitz, DE
Andreas Stefik
  • University of Nevada - Las Vegas, US
Eddie Antonio Santos
  • University College Dublin, IE
and all authors of the abstracts in this report

Cite AsGet BibTex

Brett A. Becker, Paul Denny, Janet Siegmund, Andreas Stefik, and Eddie Antonio Santos. The Human Factors Impact of Programming Error Messages (Dagstuhl Seminar 22052). In Dagstuhl Reports, Volume 12, Issue 1, pp. 119-130, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)
https://doi.org/10.4230/DagRep.12.1.119

Abstract

The impacts of many human factors on how people program are poorly understood and present significant challenges for work on improving programmer productivity and effective techniques for teaching and learning programming. Programming error messages are one factor that is particularly problematic, with a documented history of evidence dating back over 50 years. Such messages, commonly called compiler error messages, present difficulties for programmers with diverse demographic backgrounds. It is generally agreed that these messages could be more effective for all users, making this an obvious and high-impact area to target for improving programming outcomes. This report documents the program and the outputs of Dagstuhl Seminar 22052, "The Human Factors Impact of Programming Error Messages", which explores this problem. In total, 11 on-site participants and 17 remote participants engaged in intensive collaboration during the seminar, including discussing past and current research, identifying gaps, and developing ways to move forward collaboratively to address these challenges.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • General and reference → Surveys and overviews
  • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI)
  • Social and professional topics → Computing education
  • Applied computing → Education
  • Software and its engineering → General programming languages
Keywords
  • Accessibility; Compilers; Compiler Error Messages; Computer Science Education; Computer-Human Interaction; Computing Education; CS1; Error Messages; HCI; Human Factors; Human Computer Interaction; Novice Programmers; Programming Errors; Programming Error Messages; Programming Languages; Software Engineering; Syntax Errors

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