Blank document

Ever wondered 'how to begin' or 'what to write' when you are given an empty page with nothing on it? It's hard because you have to first figure out how to structure what you want to write. This is particularly hard for novices (in any area). I will give an example from the area I am most familiar with - Programming. For example, if a novice is given a blank editor and asked to write a program that produces a specific output, the first thing that crosses his mind is "what do I start with" ?(I don't remember the references for this.. will pull them up later on, but I can say this thought is for real because I also went through it). It takes time to get used to syntaxes and the general structure of the program (references later on) and till then a blank editor is always scary.

The same can be said for any new document that needs to be filled. If you are told to fill all the details of your taxes on a blank document, how are you going to start? How do you know what all is expected from you by the document processor (in this case the tax dept. and in the case of programs - compiler/interpreter)?

That is why, all such documents have questions or visible place holders that convey clearly what information is needed and where. These documents are commonly called 'forms'. Although, now I'm not sure why Visual Basic calls it's blank canvas Form. The word "Form" generates the image in mind that it will have place holders in it conveying how the information needs to be structured.

Clearly, learning from these "Forms" and providing a good template to scaffold the programming skills of a novice is the need of the hour. There are editor wizards, but you have to have a certain level of expertise with the language before you can start using them. Can't we come up with something that is intuitive and provides enough support to help a novice begin?


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