Toward Code Generation: A Survey and Lessons from Semantic Parsing
It provides an overview for researchers and practitioners interested in improving software engineering efficiency through natural language processing, but it is incremental as a survey without new results.
This survey paper reviews research on translating natural language to programming languages, drawing parallels between semantic parsing and program synthesis, and analyzes advancements and open challenges in code generation.
With the growth of natural language processing techniques and demand for improved software engineering efficiency, there is an emerging interest in translating intention from human languages to programming languages. In this survey paper, we attempt to provide an overview of the growing body of research in this space. We begin by reviewing natural language semantic parsing techniques and draw parallels with program synthesis efforts. We then consider semantic parsing works from an evolutionary perspective, with specific analyses on neuro-symbolic methods, architecture, and supervision. We then analyze advancements in frameworks for semantic parsing for code generation. In closing, we present what we believe are some of the emerging open challenges in this domain.