Previous research in computer science shows that developers spend a large fraction
of their time navigating through source code. Improving developers’ effectiveness
in navigating code thus should yield significant productivity improvements. Pre
vious research in a number of fields suggests that a more breadth-first approach
to problem solving should be more successful than a more depth-first approach.
Unfortunately, modern Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) do not sup
port a breadth-first search well because they do not help developers keep track of
exploration paths well.
We implemented an IDE that allows developers to track different exploration
paths more easily, and ran a user study with seven subjects. To our surprise, sub
jects used the tool to mark waypoints instead of to facilitate a more breadth-first
search. Intrigued, we examined more closely techniques for finding a starting point
and for tracing relationships from there. We describe our findings, including com
mon difficulties our subjects encountered, and propose a novel tool to reduce in
correct search paths.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU./5407 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Sherwood, Kaitlin Duck |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | 2518202 bytes, application/pdf |
Page generated in 0.0112 seconds