Use of 3D metaphor in programming
John F. Hopkins, Paul A. Fishwick · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2000
The use of metaphor in programming can be a powerful aid to the programmer, inasmuch as it provides concrete properties to abstract ideas. In turn, these concrete properties can aid recognition of, and reasoning about, programming problems. Another potential benefit of the use of metaphor in programming is the improvement of mental retention of facts and solutions to programming problems. Traditionally, programs have been produced in a textual medium. However, a textual medium may be inferior to a 3D medium in the development and use of metaphor, as the concrete properties that metaphors provide are real-world phenomena, which are naturally 3D. An example of the use of 3D metaphors in programming was created. This consisted of a mock operating system task scheduler, along with some associated hardware devices, developed in a VRML environment using VRML PROTO nodes. These nodes were designed as objects based on real- world metaphors. The issues, problems, and novelties involved in programming in this manner were explored.