Programming at runtime: Requirements & paradigms for nonprogrammer web application development

We investigate the femibiliy of nonprogramnier web application development and propose the creation of end-user programming tools that address the issue at a high level of abstraction. The results of three related empirical studies and one protoping effort are reported. We surveyed nonprogrammers' needs for web applications and studied how nonprogrammers would naturally approach web development. To express what a tool should provide we summarize high-level components and concepts employed by web applications. To express how a tool may provide its functionality, we propose "Programming-at-Runtime" - a programming paradigm that is in its core similar to the automatic recalculation in spreadsheets. Finally, we introduce "FlashLight" - a protoype web development tool for nonprogrammers.