Rodziah Latih

Women in computer science: no shortage here!

The dwindling number of women pursuing a degree in CS is a growing frustration for many countries around the globe, but in Malaysia female CS/IT students outnumber the males. What accounts for this dichotomy?

Block-based programming approach: challenges and benefits

Block-based programming approach is a combination of component-based programming approach with end-user programming paradigm that considered being more advanced and easier to use in practice. The aim of this paper is to discuss the benefits that block-based programming approach will be contributed to the community and the challenges that have to be solved in this new environment. In this paper, we introduce several previous good examples of applications that have been developed by using block-based programming approach. The examples are evaluated and compared in term of their development speed, design quality, usability, reusability, block customization, user acceptance, application platform and range of users. Finally, based on the evaluation and comparison, important challenges and benefits are specified and discussed.

Whip: A framework for mashup development with block-based development approach

The emerging of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 technologies allows web users not only authoring and customizing web pages and their content but also integrating the contents of several web sites into one web page. This web integration is called web mashup. There are various End Users Programming development approaches in making mashup such as scripting, dataflow, widget, spreadsheet, and Programming By Demonstration (PBD). Whip design, as a tool lets casual users - those without programming skill - do the mashup easily through Block-Based Programming (BBP) approach. The design of Whip is guided by a number of principles that support this goal; ranging from situational application, users preference, Users skill level to code sharing. In this paper we expound the philosophy of Whip design and explain how the design of Whip supports those principles.

Principles and dynamics of block-based programming approach

Block-based programming approach is based on the principles and dynamics of combining component-based programming approach with end-user programming paradigm which is purported to be more advanced and easier to use in practice. We perform a state of the art review of block-based programming by accessing the different forms of programming approaches and paradigms pertaining to it and establish the core fundamental principles, mechanics and dynamics with examples to illustrate the essence of this approach as well as any metrics to measure its performance. The important characteristics of block-based programming are gathered together and tabulated with clear definition of meaning and purpose. Correspondingly, we establish the criterion and metric by which to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of programming effort in developing software systems based on the block-based approach. In addition, we illustrate more on the block specification and identification to give brief understanding. Finally, we identify aspects of block-based programming which need further investigation, research and development.