Conversational Code Creator

Live demo: https://codepen.io/hchiam/full/NLVQeo

Conversationally create code with this interactive programming interface.

You describe a code instruction, and the interface will ask you questions to implement it.

UPDATE: won't be working on this anymore - see repos like:

• https://github.com/hchiam/learning-gpt4all
• https://github.com/hchiam/learning-prompt-eng

Ideas

Maybe this tool could enable even higher-level programming?

Encourage clean code thinking? Think in terms of nouns and verbs to create more declarative code?

Technical Notes

• This project uses compromise.js to parse the user input sentence for verbs, nouns, and prepositions.
  • Verbs are treated as function names.
  • Nouns are treated as variables or parameter names.
  • Prepositions can be treated as parameter separators (or as a parameter when there are no nouns, e.g. the "up" in "move up").
• To make it easier to generate and edit the output code (especially nested objects and functions), I'm trying this out:
  • User input gets turned into functions and variables (treated as objects) stored in one big JS object (instead of relying on lines and line numbers).
  • That JS object is used to generate JavaScript code, to be displayed back to the user.
  • Since JS objects support nesting, there can be nesting of functions and variables (all treated as objects.
  • All variables are initialized as JS objects.

Hello World Example:

User: "say something"

CCC: "What is the initial value of something?"

User: "Hello world!"

This conversation generates this JSON object:

{
  "something": "\"Hello world\"",
  "say": "function(words) { /*uses external library*/responsiveVoice.speak('\"' + words + '\"', 'UK English Male'); }"
}

Which generates this JS code:

// VARIABLES and FUNCTIONS:
let something = "Hello world";
let say = function (words) {
  /*uses external library*/ responsiveVoice.speak(
    '"' + words + '"',
    "UK English Male"
  );
};

// USAGE:
this.resetSharedVariables();
say(something);

Object Creation Example:

User: "fox says words"

CCC: "What is the initial value of words?"

User: "hi"

This conversation generates this JSON object:

{
  "fox": {
    "say": "function(words) { /*uses external library*/responsiveVoice.speak('\"' + words + '\"', 'UK English Male'); }"
  },
  "words": "\"hi\""
}

Which generates this JS code:

// VARIABLES and FUNCTIONS:
let fox = {};
fox.say = function (words) {
  /*uses external library*/ responsiveVoice.speak(
    '"' + words + '"',
    "UK English Male"
  );
};
let words = "hi";

// USAGE:
this.resetSharedVariables();
fox.say(words);

Note: Nouns that have associated verbs (and nouns) are initialized as JS objects.

If we continue the conversation with the code above:

User: "fox mouth eats food"

CCC: "What is the initial value of food?"

User: "pests"

This conversation re-generates this updated JSON object:

{
  "fox": {
    "say": "function(words) { /*uses external library*/responsiveVoice.speak('\"' + words + '\"', 'UK English Male'); }",
    "mouth": {
      "eat": "function(food) { alert(food); }"
    }
  },
  "words": "\"hi\"",
  "food": "\"pests\""
}

Which re-generates this JS code:

// VARIABLES and FUNCTIONS:
let fox = {};
fox.say = function (words) {
  /*uses external library*/ responsiveVoice.speak(
    '"' + words + '"',
    "UK English Male"
  );
};
fox.mouth = {};
fox.mouth.eat = function (food) {
  alert(food);
};
let words = "hi";
let food = "pests";

// USAGE:
this.resetSharedVariables();
fox.say(words);
fox.mouth.eat(food);

Built-in Things to Try:

Try these:

• "move to a position" (when you're prompted for a value, enter "top"/"bottom"/"middle"/etc., listed in the if block.)
• "say something"
• "what does the fox say"

Related Work:

https://github.com/hchiam/code-tutor