Rapid prototyping, automatic programming, and experimental sciences

Automatic programming as a strategy for developing rapid prototyping systems is an attractive alternative (although perhaps further in the future) to human-oriented methodologies and to executable specifications. In the case of some experimental sciences, however, it is currently possible to develop rapid prototyping systems using the automatic programming strategy. The greatest value of such systems is gained when they are oriented toward use by domain scientists, rather than software engineers. This goal has major implications for the specification language, the user interface, and the programming knowledge required by the system.