Programming requires much more than just writing code in a programming language. It is usually done in the context of a stateful environment, by interacting with a system through a graphical user interface. Yet, this wide space of possibilities lacks a common structure for navigation. Work on programming systems fails to form a coherent body of research, making it hard to improve on past work and advance the state of the art. In computer science, much has been said and done to allow comparison of **programming languages**, yet no similar theory exists for *programming systems*; we believe that programming systems deserve a theory too. We present a framework of *technical dimensions* which capture the underlying characteristics of programming systems and provide a means for conceptualizing and comparing them. We identify technical dimensions by examining past influential programming systems and reviewing their design principles, technical capabilities, and styles of user interaction. Technical dimensions capture characteristics that may be studied, compared and advanced independently. This makes it possible to talk about programming systems in a way that can be shared and constructively debated rather than relying solely on personal impressions. Our framework is derived using a qualitative analysis of past programming systems. We outline two concrete ways of using our framework. First, we show how it can analyze a recently developed novel programming system. Then, we use it to identify an interesting unexplored point in the design space of programming systems. Much research effort focuses on building programming systems that are easier to use, accessible to non-experts, moldable and/or powerful, but such efforts are disconnected. They are informal, guided by the personal vision of their authors and thus are only evaluable and comparable on the basis of individual experience using them. By providing foundations for more systematic research, we can help programming systems researchers to stand, at last, on the shoulders of giants.

翻译：编程所需远不止于用编程语言编写代码。它通常在有状态环境的背景下，通过图形用户界面与系统交互来完成。然而，这一广阔的可能性空间缺乏统一的导航结构。关于编程系统的研究未能形成连贯的研究体系，这使得改进已有工作并推进技术前沿变得困难。在计算机科学领域，人们已经对**编程语言**的比较进行了大量论述与实践，但针对*编程系统*尚无类似的理论体系；我们相信编程系统也值得拥有自己的理论。我们提出了一个*技术维度*框架，该框架捕捉了编程系统的底层特征，并为概念化和比较它们提供了手段。通过考察历史上具有影响力的编程系统，并审视其设计原则、技术能力及用户交互风格，我们识别出这些技术维度。技术维度捕捉了可被独立研究、比较和推进的特征。这使得我们能够以可共享且可建设性讨论的方式探讨编程系统，而非仅依赖个人主观印象。我们的框架基于对过往编程系统的定性分析推导而来。我们概述了使用该框架的两种具体方式：首先，展示如何用其分析一个近期开发的新型编程系统；其次，利用它识别出编程系统设计空间中一个有趣但未被探索的点。目前大量研究工作聚焦于构建更易用、非专家可访问、可塑性强和/或功能强大的编程系统，但这些努力彼此割裂。它们非正式且受作者个人愿景引导，因此只能基于个体使用经验进行评估和比较。通过为更系统的研究提供基础，我们得以帮助编程系统研究者最终站在巨人的肩膀上。