Benefits of a data flow-aware programming environment

Abstract

Many programmers write their programs with a primitive text editor that has no knowledge about the edited text. On the other hand, they use ingenious compilers that collect control flow and data flow information to perform optimizations and generate optimized code. We argue that program editors should have the same knowledge about the control flow and data flow of a program. Such editors could help programmers to better understand programs and to be more productive. We propose a data flow-aware programming environment that makes the information that the compiler already computed visible. The bidirectional feedback from the compiler to the programmer and back from the programmer to the compiler enables productive programming and faster debugging.