Conversational programming

• US 9,304,744 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2014
• Issued: 04/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Agentsheets, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Agentsheets, Inc.
• Inventors: Repenning, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Mongbao
• Application Number:
  US14/172,717
• Publication Number:
  US 20140157233A1
• Time in Patent Office: 791 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/436 Semantic checking

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing rich semantic feedback to programmers by executing programs, or parts of programs, in data contexts relevant to the programmer are provided. According to one embodiment, software code associated with one or more of multiple programming building blocks is enabled to be concurrently edited and executed within a programming environment. A conversational programming agent of the programming environment receives (i) information regarding the programming building blocks and (ii) information indicative of a current situation relating to the programming building blocks. The conversational programming agent evaluates the programming building blocks based on the current situation. Then, detection of one or more logical errors in one or more of the programming building blocks is facilitated by the conversational programming agent proactively providing semantic feedback regarding those of the programming building blocks to which the current situation is relevant to the programmer based on results of the evaluation.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

allowing software code associated with one or more of a plurality of programming building blocks to be concurrently edited and executed within a programming environment, including, responsive to advancement of time or input by an end user of the programming environment, revising a current situation relating to the plurality of programming building blocks or revising the software code;

receiving, by a conversational programming agent of the programming environment, (i) information regarding the plurality of programming building blocks and (ii) information indicative of the current situation; and

evaluating, by the conversational programming agent, the plurality of programming building blocks based on the current situation;

responsive to said evaluating, facilitating detection of one or more logical errors in one or more of the plurality of programming building blocks by proactively providing, by the conversational programming agent, real-time, human perceptible semantic feedback regarding those of the plurality of programming building blocks to which the current situation is relevant to the end user based on the evaluating;

wherein the real-time, human perceptible semantic feedback comprises annotating one or more of the plurality of programming building blocks; and

wherein the conversational programming agent is implemented in one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media of one or more computer systems, the one or more computer-readable media having instructions tangibly embodied therein that are executable by the one or more processors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the real-time, human perceptible semantic feedback comprises colored annotations relating to evaluation of Boolean conditions associated with the one or more of the plurality of programming building blocks.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of programming building blocks include operational programming building blocks.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of programming building blocks include latent programming building blocks.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the current situation includes data describing a collection of agents instantiated by an operational program.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of programming building blocks include operational programming building blocks of the operational program associated with a selected agent of the collection of agents.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising concurrently displaying, by the programming environment, (i) a visual representation of a programming building block of the plurality of programming building blocks within a behavior editor and (ii) a visual representation of the current situation, wherein the current situation includes (a) a selection identifying a selected agent of a plurality of agents represented by the plurality of programming building blocks and (b) data describing at least the selected agent and wherein the programming building block corresponds to the selected agent and represents one or more behavioral rules of the selected agent.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving from the end user via interaction with the visual representation of the current situation, by the programming environment, input regarding a hypothetical situation to be used as the current situation for evaluation by the conversational programming agent.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium embodying a set of instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of one or more computer systems, cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

allowing software code associated with one or more of a plurality of a plurality of programming building blocks to be concurrently edited and executed within a programming environment, including, responsive to advancement of time or input by an end user of the programming environment, revising a current situation relating to the plurality of programming building blocks or revising the software code;

receiving (i) information regarding the plurality of programming building blocks and (ii) information indicative of the current situation; and

evaluating the plurality of programming building blocks based on the current situation; and

responsive to said evaluating, facilitating detection of one or more logical errors in one or more of the plurality of programming building blocks by proactively providing real-time, human perceptible semantic feedback regarding those of the plurality of programming building blocks to which the current situation is relevant to the end user based on the evaluating, wherein the real-time, human perceptible semantic feedback comprises annotating one or more of the plurality of programming building blocks.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of colored annotations relate to evaluation of Boolean conditions associated with the one or more of the plurality of programming building blocks.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of programming building blocks include operational programming building blocks.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of programming building blocks include latent programming building blocks.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the current situation includes data describing a collection of agents instantiated by an operational program.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the plurality of programming building blocks include operational programming building blocks of the operational program associated with a selected agent of the collection of agents.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises concurrently displaying (i) a visual representation of a programming building block of the plurality of programming building blocks within a behavior editor and (ii) a visual representation of the current situation, wherein the current situation includes (a) a selection identifying a selected agent of a plurality of agents represented by the plurality of programming building blocks and (b) data describing at least the selected agent and wherein the programming building block corresponds to the selected agent and represents one or more behavioral rules of the selected agent.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises receiving from the end user via interaction with the visual representation of the current situation, by the programming environment, input regarding a hypothetical situation to be used as the current situation for evaluation by the conversational programming agent.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

allowing software code associated with one or more of a plurality of programming building blocks to be concurrently edited and executed within a programming environment, including concurrently displaying, by the programming environment, (i) a visual representation of a programming building block of the plurality of programming building blocks within a behavior editor and (ii) a visual representation of a current situation, wherein the current situation includes (a) a selection identifying a selected agent of a plurality of agents represented by the plurality of programming building blocks and (b) data describing at least the selected agent and wherein the programming building block corresponds to the selected agent and represents one or more behavioral rules of the selected agent;

responsive to selection of the selected agent by an end user of the programming environment, a conversational programming agent of the programming environment, evaluating, based on the current situation, the one or more behavior rules and other behavior rules of one or more other of the plurality of agents to which the current situation is relevant; and

responsive to said evaluating, facilitating detection of one or more logical errors in the one or more behavior rules by the end user by conveying results of said evaluating, by the conversational programming agent, in a form of one or more annotation to the visual representation of the programming building block, wherein the one or more annotations provide real-time semantic feedback to the end user regarding a meaning of the one or more behavior rules in a context of the current situation.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more behavior rules comprise Boolean conditions and wherein the one or more annotations comprise colored annotations indicative of truth or falsity of the Boolean conditions.