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Summer2020 Session 12

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Sunoikisis Digital Classics, Summer 2020

Session 12. Programming for Humanists

Thursday June 25, 17:00-18:15 CEST

Convenors: Angelos Barmpoutis and Eleni Bozia (University of Florida)

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/F5b-iLLbG3s

Session outline

Basic knowledge of computer coding is no longer only a requirement for computer engineers; it has become an essential component of the general computer literacy that students and scholars, such as digital humanists, may also have. Questions that have been raised by Humanities scholars include the following: How can computer literacy be embedded into existing Liberal Arts curricula? What are the best practices for teaching computer programming in the Humanities? How can computer literacy enhance the Humanities?

In this presentation we would like to discuss a novel method for integrating coding within existing Liberal Arts curricula. The proposed approach uses natural languages, such as English, German, Latin, Spanish, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, etc., in the form of instantly generated text replacements that automatically “translate” the computer code that is being typed by the users. Within this framework a natural language is used as an instrument that could bridge the Humanities with computer coding, since natural languages represent the common denominator of several Liberal Arts disciplines.

A novel text-editing tool will be presented that allows Humanities students and scholars to read computer code as a text written in a natural language of their preference. This enables Humanities scholars with limited or no prior knowledge of computer programming to read computer code in the form of a list of procedural instructions expressed in a natural language. More importantly, the proposed method motivates students and scholars to express interest in the content of the text, especially if the natural language used is related to their discipline. Emoticoding example in various natural languages from Barmpoutis, Koli 2018.

Reference materials

The experimental tool that will be discussed in this session is available at: https://research.dwi.ufl.edu/projects/emoticoding

Seminar readings

Angelos Barmpoutis “Learning Programming Languages as Shortcuts to Natural Language Token Replacements”, Association for Computing Machinery Conference Proceedings Series, 2018, pp. 1-10. ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-6535-2/18/11 https://research.dwi.ufl.edu/people/angelos/page/learning-programming-languages-as-shortcuts-to-natural-language-token-replacements/

Further reading

Barmpoutis A., Huynh K., Ariet P., Saunders N. (2018) “Assessing the Effectiveness of Emoticon-Like Scripting in Computer Programming”. In: Ahram T., Karwowski W. (eds) Advances in Human Factors, Software, and Systems Engineering. AHFE 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 598. Springer, Cham. https://research.dwi.ufl.edu/people/angelos/page/assessing-the-effectiveness-of-emoticon-like-scripting-in-computer-programming/

Angelos Barmpoutis and Kim Huynh “Name Tags and Pipes: Assessing the Role of Metaphors in Students’ Early Exposure to Computer Programming Using Emoticoding”, Advances in Human Factors in Training, Education, and Learning Sciences, 2019, Springer, pp. 194-202. https://research.dwi.ufl.edu/people/angelos/page/name-tags-and-pipes-assessing-the-role-of-metaphors-in-students-early-exposure-to-computer-programming-using-emoticoding/

Angelos Barmpoutis “Integrating algebra, geometry, music, 3D art, and technology using emoticoding”. In: Proceedings of the 8th IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), March 10, 2018, IEEE, pp. 30-33. https://research.dwi.ufl.edu/people/angelos/page/integrating-algebra-geometry-music-3d-art-and-technology-using-emoticoding/

Exercise

  1. Transcribe a small part of a dialog from a theatrical play (for example an ancient Greek drama or a Shakespearean play) using the example presented in this seminar. This exercise can also work as a class activity by asking the students to complete this task using different sections of the same play or different plays of their preference.

  2. Transcribe the common notions from Euclid's Elements Book 1 into computer code as shown in the example presented in this seminar. Different editions may include 5-9 elements. An English translation of Euclid's Elements Book 1 can be found here: https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/bookI/bookI.html

  3. Build the alignment between a natural language of your choice to the limited set of tokens from JavaScript shown in the examples of this seminar. You can consider ancient natural languages as well as modern. To do this please download and follow the instructions in this dataset: https://research.dwi.ufl.edu/projects/emoticoding/contribute/

  4. Reflect on the main seminar reading “Learning Programming Languages as Shortcuts to Natural Language Token Replacements” and try to explore the following question: Can any natural language be mapped to the syntax of a particular programming language? How can we overcome the observed limitations?

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