Lambda the Ultimate

A technical report by Ravi Chugh et al. Abstract:

We present the SKETCH-N-SKETCH editor for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) that integrates programmatic and direct manipulation, two modes of interaction with complementary strengths. In SKETCH-N-SKETCH, the user writes a program to generate an output SVG canvas. Then the user may directly manipulate the canvas while the system infers realtime updates to the program in order to match the changes to the output. To achieve this, we propose (i) a technique called trace-based program synthesis that takes program execution history into account in order to constrain the search space and (ii) heuristics for dealing with ambiguities. Based on our experience writing more than 40 examples and from the results of a study with 25 participants, we conclude that SKETCH-N-SKETCH provides a novel and effective work- flow between the boundaries of existing programmatic and direct manipulation systems.

This was demoed at PLDI to a lot of fanfare. Also see some videos. And a demo that you can actually play with, sweet!