The success of spreadsheets has shown that a visual representation of a 2D array greatly facilitates solving certain problems. However, spreadsheets are not general-purpose programming environments and are not suited to many problems that might naturally be solved using multi-dimensional arrays. Furthermore, spreadsheets employ a textual notation for cell references in formulas. This notation, which adds to the programmer''s burden by distinguishing between relative and absolute addressing, can be difficult to understand and is error-prone even for the most experienced users. In this paper, we present a user interface for multi-dimensional arrays within Formulate, a form-based visual programming language. This implementation avoids textual array notation and supports the application of formulas to logical regions of an array, rather than just to individual elements.
- Formulate,
- Absolute Addressing,
- Array Manipulation,
- Array Visualization,
- Arrays,
- Cell References,
- Data Handling,
- Data Structures,
- Data Visualisation,
- Error-Prone Notation,
- Form-Based Visual Programming Language,
- Formulas,
- Graphical User Interfaces,
- Logical Regions,
- Multi-Dimensional Arrays,
- Relative Addressing,
- Spreadsheet Programs,
- Spreadsheets,
- Textual Notation,
- User Interface,
- Visual Languages,
- Visual Representation
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jennifer-leopold/14/