The end-to-end use of source code examples: An exploratory study

Reid Holmes, Rylan Cottrell, Robert J. Walker, Jorg Denzinger
2009 2009 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance  
Source code examples are valuable to developers needing to use an unfamiliar application programming interface (API). Numerous approaches exist to help developers locate source code examples; while some of these help the developer to select the most promising examples, none help the developer to reuse the example itself. Without explicit tool support for the complete end-to-end task, the developer can waste time and energy on examples that ultimately fail to be appropriate; as a result, the
more » ... head required to reuse an example can restrict a developer's willingness to investigate multiple examples to find the "best" one for their situation. This paper outlines four case studies involving the end-to-end use of source code examples: we investigate the overhead and pitfalls involved in combining a few state-of-the-art techniques to support the end-to-end use of source code examples.
doi:10.1109/icsm.2009.5306387 dblp:conf/icsm/HolmesCWD09 fatcat:cnygamynlzejtczw4nammdpi5y