PROGRAMMING BY QUESTIONNAIRE

The approach is to present the user with a set of possible options, expressed in an English language questionnaire. By choosing from these options, the user specifies all the information necessary to construct his desired computer program. A 'Generator' program, informed of the selected options, then constructs the desired program and specifies the data that the user must supply in order to execute the generated program. The components of the Generator program are: (1) A 'Statement List' that includes all the commands which may be needed in the construction of any of the programs. (2) A set of 'Decision Tables' that specify which commands are to be included in the generated program, based on the choices selected from the Questionnaire. (3) An 'Editor' that processes the Questionnaire, Statement List, and Decision Tables. The mechanics of the program generation process are discussed in terms of an illustrative Job Shop Simulator Program Generator (JSSPG).