John Sturdy, Ph.D., Computer Science and Information Systems Department, University of Limerick, Ireland: The psychology of programming

My research interests cover a range of topics about programming, particularly entering the area of the psychology of programming. Here are some of my main focal points:

Editing -- how people think about, and perform, changes to software, e.g. is it terms of the characters in the source file, or the structure of the program? How do we locate the part of the program where we want to change it?

New UIs for programmers, particularly disability-related e.g. voice; and can they be applied on top of existing editing methods, or should we start again?

Very good software -- aesthetically pleasing, and/or very stable -- what are its characteristics, how is it produced, and how can we encourage its production?

Resumability -- making it easier to put down what you're doing, and take it up again, thus reducing physical and mental stresses

Pleasure in programming -- is it becoming more stressful? Are our more efficient tools just a treadmill to get more out of us, or do we let ourselves use them to get the same work done in less time? Or with less wasted time? Can we learn to pace ourselves?

Välkomna!
Daniel Skog