Introduction to Program Synthesis

Program synthesis, a technique to generate programs from semantic and syntactic requirements, has been a long-standing goal in software development. It aims to automate software creation beyond traditional compilation and logic programming methods. While machine learning plays a role in program synthesis, recent advancements have focused on Large Language Models (LLMs) like co-pilot and AlphaCode. Despite LLMs' success, search-based techniques in program synthesis remain relevant due to their efficiency and ability to work without extensive training data. These techniques have excelled in tasks like bit-vector manipulations and verification of complex algorithms. Program synthesis finds applications in aiding software engineering, supporting end-user programming, data wrangling, and reverse engineering of code. Notably, tools like FlashFill in Excel 2013 showcase how program synthesis can assist non-programmers in data manipulation tasks. Additionally, reverse engineering efforts aim to infer specifications from existing implementations, enabling tasks like modernizing legacy applications and optimizing code. Overall, program synthesis continues to be an active area of research with a focus on enhancing automation and efficiency in software development processes.