Traditional program synthesis systems have modal UIs (i.e., users enter a special mode to give demonstration/examples), which interrupt users’ workflow and require users to have knowledge about the systems to invoke them.
Blue-Pencil aim at developing modeless program synthesis systems, that is, systems that do not require users to explicitly enter a special mode to give demonstration or examples. Instead, a modeless program synthesis system observes what task a user is doing, learns how to automate the task from those observations, and subsequently assists the user by automating the remaining part of the task.
Modeless program synthesis is the main technology behind Visual Studio IntelliCode Suggestions (opens in new tab):
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