Problems and Limitations
Some feel that the concept of automated program generation often results in poor "factoring" of information. Known redundancy should be factored out, not introduced, it is said. However, sometimes specific programming languages are limited such that one has to introduce repetition of a concept or pattern in order to keep using the same language. Here is a simplified illustration of factoring:
Poor Factoring: x = a + a + a + a + a
Good Factoring: x = a * 5 (where the asterisk means "multiply")
Program generation tends to focus on automating the repetition seen in the first example, when a better approach is perhaps to find a higher-order abstraction, which is multiplication in this case. Other examples include putting parameters into a file or database instead of inside application code.
Read more about this topic: Program Synthesis
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