@device(postscript)
@libraryfile(Mathematics10)
@libraryfile(Accents)
@style(fontfamily=timesroman,fontscale=11)
@pagefooting(immediate, left "@c<Technical Report 1996>",
center "@c<Computer Science>",
right "@c<Carnegie Mellon>")
@heading(Usability Issues in the Design of Novice Programming Systems)
@heading(CMU-CS-96-132)
@center(@b(John F. Pane, Brad A. Myers))
@center(August 1996@foot<Also appears as Human-Computer Interaction Institute Technical Report CMU-HCII-96-101.>)
@center(FTP: CMU-CS-96-130.ps)
@blankspace(1)
@begin(text)

This report reviews and organizes research about novice programmers.
Over the past two decades, many aspects of novice programming
have been investigated, resulting in the discovery of important facts and
tradeoffs about what makes programming difficult to learn, and about the
effectiveness of existing languages, environments, and methods of
instruction. However, because this research is dispersed throughout the
literature, it is difficult for designers of new programming systems to
consider all of the issues collectively. The result is that most new
systems are built primarily around technical objectives, perhaps
considering only a subset of the usability issues summarized here. In
addition to providing a checklist of issues that should be considered in
the design of future systems, this report can be used to help researchers
identify fruitful topics of future novice programming research.

@blankspace(2line)
@begin(transparent,size=10)
@b(Keywords:@ )@c< Novice programming environments, empirical studies of
programmers, end-user programming, programming languages, human-computer
interaction, usability, computer science education>
@end(transparent)
@blankspace(1line)
@end(text)
@flushright(@b[(85 pages)])