Debugging in consumer-programming oriented environments

Computer consumers are the largest group of computer users, many of which are highly creative and experts in their area. Despite the fact they have no formal education in computer programming, they want to express their creativity and develop their own applications which will satisfy their needs. Nowadays, consumers can build their own personalized software artifacts using Geppeto (Widget Parallel Programming Tool) by building personalized workflows and dataflows over widgets, small standalone Web applications. However, computer consumers are prone to making mistakes while programming, which results in bugs in their applications. Consumers require assistance of skilled programmers in order to build dependable and error-free applications. This paper discusses new debugging methods based on professional debugging techniques, which will be understandable to average consumer. These methods will allow consumers controlled execution of their applications in order to find and remove bugs. Methods described in this paper are suitable for debugging consumer applications in a widget-oriented consumer programming environment like Geppeto, and include animated step-by-step execution of the consumer's application, adding breakpoints within widget composition and introducing interactive backtracking in order to detect erroneous widget.