Assieme: finding and leveraging implicit references in a web search interface for programmers

  • Authors:
  • Raphael Hoffmann;James Fogarty;Daniel S. Weld

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Washington, Seattle, WA;University of Washington, Seattle, WA;University of Washington, Seattle, WA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 20th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

Programmers regularly use search as part of the development process, attempting to identify an appropriate API for a problem, seeking more information about an API, and seeking samples that show how to use an API. However, neither general-purpose search engines nor existing code search engines currently fit their needs, in large part because the information programmers need is distributed across many pages. We present Assieme, a Web search interface that effectively supports common programming search tasks by combining information from Web-accessible Java Archive (JAR) files, API documentation, and pages that include explanatory text and sample code. Assieme uses a novel approach to finding and resolving implicit references to Java packages, types, and members within sample code on the Web. In a study of programmers performing searches related to common programming tasks, we show that programmers obtain better solutions, using fewer queries, in the same amount of time spent using a general Web search interface.