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Programming by example
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<p>In <a href="/facts/Computer_science/lN3pEyPz">computer science</a>, programming by example (PbE), also termed programming by demonstration or more generally as demonstrational programming, is an <a href="/facts/End-user_development/ECFS2wmt">end-user development</a> technique for <a href="/facts/Machine_learning/e0w0XJTu">teaching a computer new behavior</a> by demonstrating actions on concrete examples. The system records user actions and infers a generalized <a href="/facts/Computer_program/e38jH9N9">program</a> that can be used on new examples. </p><p>PbE is intended to be easier to do than traditional <a href="/facts/Computer_programming/QmSsFnu0">computer programming</a>, which generally requires learning and using a <a href="/facts/Programming_language/cWTYbgWa">programming language</a>. Many PbE systems have been developed as research prototypes, but few have found widespread real-world application. More recently, PbE has proved to be a useful paradigm for creating scientific work-flows. PbE is used in two independent clients for the <a href="/facts/BioMOBY/sq7VyPlH">BioMOBY</a> protocol: <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/8/208/abstract">Seahawk</a> and <a href="http://www.scfbm.org/content/1/1/4">Gbrowse moby</a>. </p><p>Also the <a href="/facts/Programming_by_demonstration/k4Kewbkx">programming by demonstration</a> (PbD) term has been mostly adopted by robotics researchers for teaching new behaviors to the robot through a physical demonstration of the task. The usual distinction in literature between these terms is that in PbE the user gives a prototypical product of the computer execution, such as <a href="/facts/Query_by_Example/N9gnGUm9">a row in the desired results of a query</a>; while in PbD the user performs a sequence of actions that the computer must repeat, generalizing it to be used in different data sets. For final users, to automate a workflow in a complex tool (e.g. <a href="/facts/Adobe_Photoshop/f6bbmNx0">Photoshop</a>), the most simple case of PbD is the <a href="/facts/Macro_recorder/e8sgrWGK">macro recorder</a>. </p>