The Style and Substance of API Names

Author

Daughtry, John M.

Author_Institution

Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

21-25 Sept. 2010

Firstpage

259

Lastpage

260

Abstract

Naming is a non-optional and cross-cutting design decision in professional and end-user programming activities. From assembly language to Yahoo Pipes, names are utilized for labeling and differentiation. Yet, we know little about how these names are selected or how naming impacts use and other aspects of design. My research goal is to develop a theory of application programming interface (API) naming that bridges both software engineering and human-computer interaction. Towards this end, I am studying people (perceptions), information (naming strategies in the wild), and technology (name analysis algorithms and lightweight interactions to support naming decisions).

Keywords

application program interfaces; decision making; human computer interaction; naming services; software engineering; Yahoo Pipes; application programming interface naming; assembly language; cross-cutting design decision; human computer interaction; lightweight interaction; name analysis algorithm; naming decision support; software engineering; Algorithm design and analysis; Correlation; Programming profession; Psychology; Software algorithms; Visualization; API; Human-Computer Interaction; Programming; Software Engineering;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), 2010 IEEE Symposium on

Conference_Location

Leganes

ISSN

1943-6092

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-8485-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/VLHCC.2010.48

Filename

5635254