Title :
BCC: Enhancing code completion for better API usability
Author :
Pletcher, David M. ; Hou, Daqing
Author_Institution :
Comput. Sci., Clarkson Univ., Potsdam, NY, USA
Abstract :
Nowadays, programmers spend much of their workday dealing with code libraries and frameworks that are bloated with APIs. One common way of interacting with APIs is through Code Completion inside the code editor. By default, Code Completion presents in a scrollable list, in alphabetical order, all accessible members available in the apparent type and supertypes of a receiver expression. This default behavior for Code Completion should and can be further improved because (1) not all public methods are APIs and presenting non-API public members to a programmer is misleading, (2) certain APIs are meant to be accessible only in some limited contexts but not others, and (3) the alphabetical order separates otherwise logically related APIs, making it hard to see their connection. BCC (Better Code Completion) addresses these problems by enhancing Code Completion so that programmers can control how specific API elements should be sorted, filtered, and grouped.
Keywords :
application program interfaces; computer aided software engineering; API application; API usability; Better Code Completion application; Code Completion enhancement; application program interface; code editor; code library; Computer science; Filters; Java; Productivity; Programming profession; Proposals; Prototypes; Software libraries; Speech; Usability;
Conference_Titel :
Software Maintenance, 2009. ICSM 2009. IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Edmonton, AB
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-4897-5
Electronic_ISBN :
1063-6773
DOI :
10.1109/ICSM.2009.5306289