Do developers search for source code examples using multiple facts?

Author

Holmes, Reid

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Eng., Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA

fYear

2009

fDate

16-16 May 2009

Firstpage

13

Lastpage

16

Abstract

In this paper we examine the search behaviours of developers using the Strathcona source code example recommendation system over the period of three years. In particular, we investigate the number of query facts software engineers included in their queries as they searched for source code examples. We found that in practice developers predominantly searched with multiple search facts and tended to constrain their queries by iteratively adding more facts as needed. Our experience with this data suggest that example search tools should both support searching with multiple facts as well and facilitate the construction of multi-fact queries.

Keywords

query formulation; software engineering; Strathcona source code example recommendation system; developer search behaviours; query facts; search facts; software engineers; Adaptive systems; Association rules; Computer science; Conferences; Data analysis; Data mining; Pattern analysis; Search engines;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Search-Driven Development-Users, Infrastructure, Tools and Evaluation, 2009. SUITE '09. ICSE Workshop on

Conference_Location

Vancouver, BC

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-3740-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SUITE.2009.5070013

Filename

5070013