research-article

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Interactive Extraction of Examples from Existing Code

Authors:

Elena L. Glassman,

Björn Hartmann,

Marti A. HearstAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Paper No.: 85, Pages 1 - 12

https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173659

Published: 19 April 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Programmers frequently learn from examples produced and shared by other programmers. However, it can be challenging and time-consuming to produce concise, working code examples. We conducted a formative study where 12 participants made examples based on their own code. This revealed a key hurdle: making meaningful simplifications without introducing errors. Based on this insight, we designed a mixed-initiative tool, CodeScoop, to help programmers extract executable, simplified code from existing code. CodeScoop enables programmers to "scoop" out a relevant subset of code. Techniques include selectively including control structures and recording an execution trace that allows authors to substitute literal values for code and variables. In a controlled study with 19 participants, CodeScoop helped programmers extract executable code examples with the intended behavior more easily than with a standard code editor.

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Cited By

Bhat AShrivastava DGuo J(2024)Do LLMs Meet the Needs of Software Tutorial Writers? Opportunities and Design ImplicationsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660692(1760-1773)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3660692
Karlsson SHughes JJongeling RČaušević ASundmark D(2024)Exploring API behaviours through generated examplesSoftware Quality Journal10.1007/s11219-024-09668-232:2(729-763)Online publication date: 22-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11219-024-09668-2
Rennels LChasins S(2023)How Domain Experts Use an Embedded DSLProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36228517:OOPSLA2(1499-1530)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3622851
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Index Terms

Interactive Extraction of Examples from Existing Code
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2018

8489 pages

ISBN:9781450356206

DOI:10.1145/3173574

General Chairs:
Regan Mandryk
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
,
Mark Hancock
University of Waterloo, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Mark Perry
Brunel University London, UK
,
Anna Cox
University College London, UK

Copyright © 2018 Owner/Author.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Published: 19 April 2018

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April 21 - 26, 2018

Montreal QC, Canada

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CHI '18 Paper Acceptance Rate 666 of 2,590 submissions, 26%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3660692
Karlsson SHughes JJongeling RČaušević ASundmark D(2024)Exploring API behaviours through generated examplesSoftware Quality Journal10.1007/s11219-024-09668-232:2(729-763)Online publication date: 22-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11219-024-09668-2
Rennels LChasins S(2023)How Domain Experts Use an Embedded DSLProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36228517:OOPSLA2(1499-1530)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3622851
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Yan LGlassman EZhang TKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)Visualizing Examples of Deep Neural Networks at ScaleProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445654(1-14)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
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