Code bubbles: a working set-based interface for code understanding and maintenance

  • Authors:

  • Andrew Bragdon;Robert Zeleznik;Steven P. Reiss;Suman Karumuri;William Cheung;Joshua Kaplan;Christopher Coleman;Ferdi Adeputra;Joseph J. LaViola, Jr.

  • Affiliations:

  • Brown University, Providence, RI, USA;Brown University, Providence, RI, USA;Brown University, Providence, RI, USA;Brown University, Providence, RI, USA;Brown University, Providence, RI, USA;Brown University, Providence, RI, USA;Brown University, Providence, RI, USA;Brown University, Providence, RI, USA;University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Developers spend significant time reading and navigating code fragments spread across multiple locations. The file-based nature of contemporary IDEs makes it prohibitively difficult to create and maintain a simultaneous view of such fragments. We propose a novel user interface metaphor for code understanding based on collections of lightweight, editable fragments called bubbles, which form concurrently visible working sets. We present the results of a qualitative usability evaluation, and the results of a quantitative study which indicates Code Bubbles significantly improved code understanding time, while reducing navigation interactions over a widely-used IDE, for two controlled tasks.