Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction Abstract and 1 Introduction 2. Prior conceptualisations of intelligent assistance for programmers 2. Prior conceptualisations of intelligent assistance for programmers 3. A brief overview of large language models for code generation 3. A brief overview of large language models for code generation 4. Commercial programming tools that use large language models 4. Commercial programming tools that use large language models 5. Reliability, safety, and security implications of code-generating AI models 5. Reliability, safety, and security implications of code-generating AI models 6. Usability and design studies of AI-assisted programming 6. Usability and design studies of AI-assisted programming 7. Experience reports and 7.1. Writing effective prompts is hard 7. Experience reports and 7.1. Writing effective prompts is hard 7.2. The activity of programming shifts towards checking and unfamiliar debugging 7.2. The activity of programming shifts towards checking and unfamiliar debugging 7.3. These tools are useful for boilerplate and code reuse 7.3. These tools are useful for boilerplate and code reuse 8. The inadequacy of existing metaphors for AI-assisted programming 8.1. AI assistance as search 8.1. AI assistance as search 8.2. AI assistance as compilation 8.2. AI assistance as compilation 8.3. AI assistance as pair programming 8.3. AI assistance as pair programming 8.4. A distinct way of programming 8.4. A distinct way of programming 9. Issues with application to end-user programming 9. Issues with application to end-user programming 9.1. Issue 1: Intent specification, problem decomposition and computational thinking 9.1. Issue 1: Intent specification, problem decomposition and computational thinking 9.2. Issue 2: Code correctness, quality and (over)confidence 9.2. Issue 2: Code correctness, quality and (over)confidence 9.3. Issue 3: Code comprehension and maintenance 9.3. Issue 3: Code comprehension and maintenance 9.4. Issue 4: Consequences of automation in end-user programming 9.4. Issue 4: Consequences of automation in end-user programming 9.5. Issue 5: No code, and the dilemma of the direct answer 9.5. Issue 5: No code, and the dilemma of the direct answer 10. Conclusion 10. Conclusion A. Experience report sources A. Experience report sources References References 9. Issues with application to end-user programming The benefits and challenges of programming with LLMs discussed so far concern the professional programmer, or a novice programmer in training. They have formal training in programming and, often, some understanding of the imperfect nature of AI-generated code. But the majority of people who program do not fall into this category. Instead, they are ordinary end users of computers who program to an end. Such end-user programmers often lack knowledge of programming, or the workings of AI. They also lack the inclination to acquire those skills. It is reasonable to say that such end-user programmers (e.g., accountants, journalists, scientists, business owners) stand to benefit the most from AI assistance, such as LLMs. In one ideal world, an end-user wanting to accomplish a task could do so by simply specifying their intent in familiar natural language without prior knowledge of the underlying programming model, or its syntax and semantics. The code will get generated and even automatically run to produce the desired output. However, as we have seen so far, the world is not ideal and even trained programmers face various challenges when programming with AI. These challenges are only exacerbated for end-user programmers, as a study by Srinivasa Ragavan et al. (2022) observes. Participants in the study were data analysts (n=20) conducting exploratory data analysis in GridBook, a natural-language augmented spreadsheet system. In GridBook (Figure 6, adopted from Srinivasa Ragavan et al. (2022)) users can write spreadsheet formulas using the natural language (Figure 6: a-f); a formal formula is then synthesized from the natural language utterance. GridBook also infers the context of an utterance; for example, in Figure 6, the query in label 4 is a follow-up from label 3. Both the natural language utterance and the synthesized formula are persisted for users to edit and manipulate. Authors:
(1) Advait Sarkar, Microsoft Research, University of Cambridge (advait@microsoft.com);
(2) Andrew D. Gordon, Microsoft Research, University of Edinburgh (adg@microsoft.com);
(3) Carina Negreanu, Microsoft Research (cnegreanu@microsoft.com);
(4) Christian Poelitz, Microsoft Research (cpoelitz@microsoft.com);
(5) Sruti Srinivasa Ragavan, Microsoft Research (a-srutis@microsoft.com);
(6) Ben Zorn, Microsoft Research (ben.zorn@microsoft.com). Authors: Authors: (1) Advait Sarkar, Microsoft Research, University of Cambridge (advait@microsoft.com); (2) Andrew D. Gordon, Microsoft Research, University of Edinburgh (adg@microsoft.com); (3) Carina Negreanu, Microsoft Research (cnegreanu@microsoft.com); (4) Christian Poelitz, Microsoft Research (cpoelitz@microsoft.com); (5) Sruti Srinivasa Ragavan, Microsoft Research (a-srutis@microsoft.com); (6) Ben Zorn, Microsoft Research (ben.zorn@microsoft.com). This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. available on arxiv available on arxiv

Part of HackerNoon's growing list of open-source research papers, promoting free access to academic material.

Microsoft

Thinking Like A Computer: The Missing Skill For Non-Experts Using AI

A New Chapter In Coding: How AI Is Profoundly Changing Programmer Practices

Pair Programming AI Agent 

Too Long; Didn't Read

Get Free Unlimited IP Geo Data With IPinfo Lite

Why It's Harder: The Unique Hurdles For Non-Experts Using AI Coding Tools

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

11 Proven Solutions to Common GitHub Copilot Problems

Human-Human vs Human-AI Pair Programming

The Pros and Cons of Pair Programming

What Makes Pair Programming a Success (or a Failure)?

Breaking Down the Human-AI Pair Programming Experience

LLM, Your pAIr Programmer?

11 Proven Solutions to Common GitHub Copilot Problems

Human-Human vs Human-AI Pair Programming

The Pros and Cons of Pair Programming

What Makes Pair Programming a Success (or a Failure)?

Breaking Down the Human-AI Pair Programming Experience

LLM, Your pAIr Programmer?

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps