Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have one: natural language programming. I have some ideas about how it would work, and have looked a little into how it might be implemented and have some seemingly feasible ideas there too. But I'm not an expert in either NLP or programming language development, so what do I know. A good first step in this direction is the natural programming language for creating interactive fiction, Inform 7. The problem is that…
I have one: natural language programming. This exists. It's "Write each step of an algorithm in comments before writing any code, and (only when you're finished writing each step in English in comments) fill in the code each comment represents". But it's impossible to convince anyone to try that, though, even though it gives all the benefits you are imagining NLP would give. The mentality "Don't repeat yourself under…
Here's an actual snippet of a test I wrote before writing the corresponding code for an app that's now in production:
describe "adding participants" do
context "when user has created a new event" do
before :each do
visit root_path
click_link 'Get Started'
fill_in 'Name', :with => 'Tres'
fill_in 'E-mail', :with => 'tres@sogetthis.com'
click_button 'Next'
end
it "should prompt for more participant info" do
page.should have_field 'Name'
page.should have_field 'E-mail'
page.should have_button 'Add Participant'
end
it "shouldn't let you enter an invalid e-mail" do
fill_in 'Name', :with => 'Tres'
fill_in 'E-mail', :with => '#)(*)($*#)($*'
click_button 'Add Participant'
page.should have_content 'invalid'
end
end
end