https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~lerner/proj-boxes.html

Live programming is a regime in which the programming environment provides continual feedback, most often in the form of runtime values. In this project, we explore Projection Boxes, a novel visualization technique for displaying runtime values of programs. The key idea behind projection boxes is to start with a full semantics of the program, and then use projec- tions to pick a subset of the semantics to display. By varying the projection used, projection boxes can encode both previ- ously known visualization techniques, and also new ones. As such, projection boxes provide an expressive and configurable framework for displaying runtime information. Through a user study we have already demonstrated that (1) users find projection boxes and their configurability useful (2) users are not distracted by the always-on visualization (3) a key driving force behind the need for a configurable visualization for live programming lies with the wide variation in programmer preferences.

Previous post: https://futureofcoding.slack.com/archives/C5T9GPWFL/p1583127886053900

In prototypes like this, it is most unfortunate that the author picks a trivial example to examine. Nobody is having trouble figuring out how to average the sum of 5 numbers. It would help if they picked a more realistic example so that one can confront the obvious problem that not every piece of data can fit on the screen at once, and that simple calculations are rarely the source of program bugs. The main source of error in software is caused by the incorrect order of calculation of things (especially dependent things), and redundant values which can conflict.

@Edward de Jong / Beads Project spot on.