In computer science, the term automatic programming identifies a type of computer programming in which some mechanism generates a computer program to allow human

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

s to write the code at a higher abstraction level. There has been little agreement on the precise definition of automatic programming, mostly because its meaning has changed over time. David Parnas, tracing the history of "automatic programming" in published research, noted that in the 1940s it described automation of the manual process of punching

paper tape Five- and eight-hole punched paper tape Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage ...

. Later it referred to translation of high-level programming languages like Fortran and ALGOL. In fact, one of the earliest programs identifiable as a compiler was called Autocode. Parnas concluded that "automatic programming has always been a

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for programming in a higher-level language than was then available to the programmer." Program synthesis is one type of automatic programming where a procedure is created from scratch, based on mathematical requirements.

Origin

Mildred Koss, an early UNIVAC programmer, explains: "Writing machine code involved several tedious steps—breaking down a process into discrete instructions, assigning specific memory locations to all the commands, and managing the I/O buffers. After following these steps to implement mathematical routines, a sub-routine library, and sorting programs, our task was to look at the larger programming process. We needed to understand how we might reuse tested code and have the machine help in programming. As we programmed, we examined the process and tried to think of ways to abstract these steps to incorporate them into higher-level language. This led to the development of interpreters, assemblers, compilers, and generators—programs designed to operate on or produce other programs, that is, ''automatic programming''."

Generative programming

''Generative programming'' and the related term meta-programming are concepts whereby programs can be written "to manufacture software components in an automated way" just as automation has improved "production of traditional commodities such as garments, automobiles, chemicals, and electronics." The goal is to improve

productivity. It is often related to code-reuse topics such as

component-based software engineering Component-based software engineering (CBSE), also called component-based development (CBD), is a branch of software engineering that emphasizes the separation of concerns with respect to the wide-ranging functionality available throughout a give ...

Source-code generation

''Source-code generation'' is the process of generating source code based on a description of the problem or an ontological model such as a template and is accomplished with a programming tool such as a template processor or an integrated development environment (IDE). These tools allow the generation of source code through any of various means. Modern programming languages are well supported by tools lik
Json4Swift
( Swift) an
Json2Kotlin
( Kotlin). Programs that could generate

COBOL COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily us ...

code include: * the DYL250/DYL260/DYL270/DYL280 series * Business Controls Corporation's SB-5 *

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's PMM2170 application-program-generator package These application generators supported COBOL inserts and overrides. A

macro Macro (or MACRO) may refer to: Science and technology * Macroscopic, subjects visible to the eye * Macro photography, a type of close-up photography * Image macro, a picture with text superimposed * Monopole, Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Observat ...

processor, such as the C preprocessor, which replaces patterns in source code according to relatively simple rules, is a simple form of source-code generator. Source-to-source code generation tools also exist.Quinlan, Dan, and Chunhua Liao.
The ROSE source-to-source compiler infrastructure
. Cetus users and compiler infrastructure workshop, in conjunction with PACT. Vol. 2011. 2011.

Low-code applications

low-code development platform A low-code development platform (LCDP) provides a development environment used to create application software through a graphical user interface. A low-coded platform may produce entirely operational applications, or require additional coding for s ...

(LCDP) is software that provides an environment

s use to create application software through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional computer programming.

Notes

References

*''Generative Programming: Methods, Tools, and Applications'' by Krzysztof Czarnecki and Ulrich W. Eisenecker, Addison Wesley, 2000.

External links

Code Generation for Dummies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Automatic Programming Programming paradigms Source code generation