TIDE: An Educational Live Programming Environment to Compose Graphics with PyTamaro

The PyTamaro approach to introductory programming equates composing a program to composing a graphic. Using the simple PyTamaro library for Python, beginner programmers compose function calls that produce primitive graphics, such as rectangle(20, 10, red), with function calls that combine graphics into composites, such as above(_, _). To ease students into programming, several school teachers have been using TamaroCards, a paper-based visual language that can express the subset of Python needed to compose simple graphics with PyTamaro. This paper introduces TIDE, the TamaroCards IDE, a web-based environment to complement the unplugged, paper-based TamaroCards. Given the constraints imposed by the Python programming language, the PyTamaro library, and the TamaroCards notation, the paper explores the design space for an interactive TamaroCards programming environment, describes a design that satisfies the pedagogical needs, and evaluates the implemented design using the Cognitive Dimensions framework.