Idea garden tuning and generalization

End-user programmers encounter many barriers as they try to accomplish their tasks. To help solve this problem, Researchers have developed solutions to help end users overcome some of these barriers, such as arcane language constructs that are difficult to learn, syntax rules that are hard to memorize, and finding suitable example programs that other end-users have written. Approaches developed previously to tackle these issues include programming by demonstration, natural programming methodology, and mashup environments. In spite of such efforts, empirical experiments show that many end-user programmers still struggle. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that most approaches try to remove these barriers rather than trying to empower users through increasing end users' problem-solving skills, creativity, and design thinking. To fill this gap, recently, Cao et al. introduced the Idea Garden approach. Idea Garden is not intended to solve problems automatically on its own or to replace online tutorials. Instead, it supplements online tutorials by suggesting problem solving strategies, programming domain concepts, and patterns based on the users' actual tasks.