COBMaker - An Interactive Block-Based Programming Environment for COBOL
Legacy COBOL systems, which power critical applications in banking, healthcare, and government, are facing a steep decline in skilled COBOL developers and a lack of interactive learning tools for novices. While block-based and visual programming environments exist for programming languages such as C and Python, there are no such tools for legacy languages like COBOL. This paper presents COBMaker, a visual block-based programming interface that provides modular, drag-and-drop blocks for COBOL programming structures, organized in a playbook-style based on COBOL 85 grammar. COBMaker supports structured program construction, abstracts low-level syntax, and enables novice programmers with no prior COBOL experience to write and run COBOL programs directly through the web interface. Our evaluation, conducted with 24 novice programmers across five tasks, demonstrated that COBMaker reduced mental demand by 28%, effort by 55%, and frustration by 66%, while improving perceived performance by 39% compared to text-based COBOL programming. These findings demonstrate the potential of visual programming to lower the learning barrier associated with COBOL and provide insights for legacy language education. The tool demo video is available at https://youtu.be/XOgJ-9olNHg, and the tool and artifacts are at https://github.com/satish-pati/COBMaker.
Sun 12 AprDisplayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change
16:00 - 17:30 | Session 3 - Tools and Interfaces for Software AnalysisEarly Research Achievements (ERA) / Replications and Negative Results (RENE) / Tool Demonstration / ICPC Program / Research Track at Europa II Chair(s): Nicole Novielli University of Bari | ||
16:00 10mTalk | A Comparative Study of Dual-Monitor and Augmented-Reality Interfaces for Digital-Twin-Based Debugging Research Track Lucas Kreber Trier University, Nico Feld Trier University, Stephan Diehl Computer Science, University Trier, Germany, Benjamin Weyers Trier University | ||
16:10 5mTalk | Understanding CI/CD Workflow Runs Through Interactive and Animated Visualizations Early Research Achievements (ERA) Pablo Valenzuela-Toledo University of Bern, Universidad de La Frontera, Sebastiano Panichella University of Bern, Timo Kehrer University of Bern | ||
16:15 5mTalk | CrossLink: A Tool for Cross-Language (Java-C/C++) Code Comprehension Tool Demonstration Ajinkya Sawarkar Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, Sridhar Chimalakonda Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, Anirudh Arrepu Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati Media Attached File Attached | ||
16:20 5mTalk | BF-CBOM: Uncovering Cryptographic Assets Through Comparative CBOM Analysis at Scale Tool Demonstration DOI Pre-print Media Attached | ||
16:25 5mTalk | COBMaker - An Interactive Block-Based Programming Environment for COBOL Tool Demonstration Satish Pati IIT Tirupati, Raghavendra Pappu IIT Tirupati, Rahul Krishna Gaddam IIT Tirupati, Sridhar Chimalakonda Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati Media Attached | ||
16:30 5mTalk | CPPJoules: An Energy Measurement Tool for C++ Tool Demonstration Shivadharshan S Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, Akilesh P Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, Rajrupa Chattaraj Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, India, Sridhar Chimalakonda Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati Media Attached | ||
16:35 10mTalk | Can We Spot Energy Regressions Using Developers Tests? An Industrial Replication Replications and Negative Results (RENE) Louay Khrouf Berger-Levrault, Anas Shatnawi Berger-Levrault, Romain Rouvoy Univ. Lille / Inria / IUF | ||
16:45 10mTalk | Evaluating the use of Augmented Reality for Dependency Graph Analysis: A Controlled Experiment Replications and Negative Results (RENE) Juan Pablo Sandoval Alcocer Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Dussan Freire-Pozo Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Exactas e Ingenierías, Universidad Católica Boliviana, Tiara Rojas-Stambuk Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Exactas e Ingenierías, Universidad Católica Boliviana, Alison Fernandez-Blanco Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Leonel Merino Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile | ||
16:55 5mTalk | Test Behaviors, Not Methods! Detecting Tests Obsessed by Methods Early Research Achievements (ERA) Pre-print Media Attached | ||
17:00 10mTalk | Déjà Vu: A Replication Study on Code Smells and Faults in JavaScript Projects Replications and Negative Results (RENE) Kevin Pacifico University of Salerno, Giammaria Giordano University of Salerno, Valeria Pontillo Gran Sasso Science Institute, Massimiliano Di Penta University of Sannio, Italy, Damian Andrew Tamburri University of Sannio - JADS/NXP Semiconductors, Fabio Palomba University of Salerno Link to publication | ||
17:10 10mTalk | Industrial Replication of COLOR: Locator Repair in Continuous Integration and Failure Patterns under UI/DOM Evolution Replications and Negative Results (RENE) Hilal Taha University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Mike Papadakis University of Luxembourg, Joel Muller BGL BNP Paribas DOI File Attached | ||
17:20 10mLive Q&A | Joint QA and Discussion ICPC Program | ||