Speculative analysis of integrated development environment recommendations

TitleSpeculative analysis of integrated development environment recommendations
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsMuşlu K, Brun Y, Holmes R, Ernst MD, Notkin D
Conference NameObject-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA 2012)
Date or Month PublishedOctober 23-25
Conference LocationTucson, AZ, USA
Abstract<p>Modern integrated development environments make recommendations and automate common tasks, such as refactorings, auto-completions, and error corrections. However, these tools present little or no information about the consequences of the recommended changes. For example, a rename refactoring may: modify the source code without changing program semantics; modify the source code and (incorrectly) change program semantics; modify the source code and (incorrectly) create compilation errors; show a name collision warning and require developer input; or show an error and not change the source code. Having to compute the consequences of a recommendation –- either mentally or by making source code changes –- puts an extra burden on the developers. </p> <p> This paper aims to reduce this burden with a technique that informs developers of the consequences of code transformations. Using Eclipse Quick Fix as a domain, we describe a plug-in, Quick Fix Scout, that computes the consequences of Quick Fix recommendations. In our experiments, developers completed compilation-error removal tasks 10% faster when using Quick Fix Scout than Quick Fix, although the sample size was not large enough to show statistical significance.</p>
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Citation KeyMusluBHEN2012-OOPSLA
Last changed Tue, 2013-06-04 11:46