The Lish: a data model to support analysis by end user programmers

Hall, Alan Geoffrey (2018). The Lish: a data model to support analysis by end user programmers. In: Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG), 5-7 Sep 2018, London.

URL: http://www.ppig.org/node/1088

Abstract

For end user programmers needing to carry out data analysis, the spreadsheet is an attractive choice, but has little safety net against user errors. Reducing these errors is an active research area, but one aspect rather little investigated is the role played by the underlying data model: the grid of cells. I am working on an alternative model, the “lish”, based on nested lists of cells. Its theoretical advantages include fewer and more concise formulae, and easier updates to the structure. A user study is in preparation to assess its practical utility.

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