Sprego Programming

Sprego is a programming tool for use within spreadsheets, designed for novice and end-user programmers. It breaks with the traditional surface approach spreadsheet methods, using instead as few general purpose functions as possible, and applying multilevel array formulas based on these functions. It also offers excellent support for debugging, and data retrieval in authentic tables. Within Sprego we recommend and support the use of a dozen general purpose functions, and claim that with this minimalist tool we can effectively solve real world programming problems in spreadsheets. One of the advantages of the method is that it focuses on the problem, instead of the coding details, and so can provide a solid background for developing algorithm skills. The method can be introduced to children as early as the primary years, since it relies solely on the phenomenon of function and builds up knowledge in long term memory. It can be expanded during secondary and tertiary education, in life-long learning, and transferred smoothly to the real life world. Beyond the immediate advantages in spreadsheets, Sprego can also serve as introductory language to high level programming languages.