Weaving Schematics and Code: Interactive Visual Editing for Hardware Description Languages
summary
An IDE for the Polymorphic Blocks HDL that keeps code primary while generating a live block-diagram from edits, with speculative block insertion that updates visuals without full recompilation and caret-based code synthesis that inserts edits at the cursor. Implemented features include a library browser, port highlighting, and footprint pinning. Evaluated with four experienced designers; participants mix graphical and textual workflows, find the visualizer and browser most useful, and report the caret flow as clunky.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (11)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:15Schematic capture is mainstream practice
- 0:56This work bridges textual code and schematics
- 1:33Programming constructs enable automation
- 1:54The HDL compiles down to boards
- 3:31The connect workflow synthesizes information
- 4:53Participants blended graphical and text entry
- 5:10Usefulness of graphical entry was mixed
- 5:25Participants found IDE features useful
- 6:18This study does have limitations
- 6:29Check out the full paper
related talks
32mTotally Live Programming with Hazel (Progress Report)
38mApparatus: A Hybrid Graphics Editor / Programming Environment
05mHieroglyphic: visual annotations for code
19mSoftware Visualization: The humane solution
22mA diagram editor to mechanize categorical proofs
43mDesigning in code
04mLT Erich Studer
21mTerosHDL: an open source IDE for FPGA developers