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The patchworks code editor: toward faster navigation with less code arranging and fewer navigation mistakes

Authors:

Austin Z. Henley,

Scott D. FlemingAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 2511 - 2520

https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557073

Published: 26 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Increasingly, people are faced with navigating large information spaces, and making such navigation efficient is of paramount concern. In this paper, we focus on the problems programmers face in navigating large code bases, and propose a novel code editor, Patchworks, that addresses the problems. In particular, Patchworks leverages two new interface idioms - the patch grid and the ribbon - to help programmers navigate more quickly, make fewer navigation errors, and spend less time arranging their code. To validate Patchworks, we conducted a user study that compared Patchworks to two existing code editors: the traditional file-based editor, Eclipse, and the newer canvas-based editor, Code Bubbles. Our results showed (1) that programmers using Patchworks were able to navigate significantly faster than with Eclipse (and comparably with Code Bubbles), (2) that programmers using Patchworks made significantly fewer navigation errors than with Code Bubbles or Eclipse, and (3) that programmers using Patchworks spent significantly less time arranging their code than with Code Bubbles (and comparably with Eclipse).

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Cited By

Feng LYen RYou YFan MZhao JLu Z(2024)CoPrompt: Supporting Prompt Sharing and Referring in Collaborative Natural Language ProgrammingProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642212(1-21)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642212
Lopes JSantos ABeckmann THirschfeld RSáenz JMerino M(2023)PescaJ: A Projectional Editor for Java Featuring Scattered Code AggregationProceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN International Workshop on Programming Abstractions and Interactive Notations, Tools, and Environments10.1145/3623504.3623571(44-50)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623504.3623571
Kreber LDiehl S(2023)A Comparative Evaluation of Tabs and Linked Panels for Program Understanding in Augmented Reality2023 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR)10.1109/ISMAR59233.2023.00017(29-38)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ISMAR59233.2023.00017
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Index Terms

The patchworks code editor: toward faster navigation with less code arranging and fewer navigation mistakes
1. Human-centered computing
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Development frameworks and environments

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2014

4206 pages

ISBN:9781450324731

DOI:10.1145/2556288

General Chairs:
Matt Jones
Swansea University, Wales, UK
,
Philippe Palanque
Université Paul Sabatier, France
,
Program Chairs:
Albrecht Schmidt
University of Stuttgart, Germany
,
Tovi Grossman
Autodesk Research, Canada

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part 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 components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 26 April 2014

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April 26 - May 1, 2014

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CHI '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 465 of 2,043 submissions, 23%;

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

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642212
Lopes JSantos ABeckmann THirschfeld RSáenz JMerino M(2023)PescaJ: A Projectional Editor for Java Featuring Scattered Code AggregationProceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN International Workshop on Programming Abstractions and Interactive Notations, Tools, and Environments10.1145/3623504.3623571(44-50)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623504.3623571
Kreber LDiehl S(2023)A Comparative Evaluation of Tabs and Linked Panels for Program Understanding in Augmented Reality2023 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR)10.1109/ISMAR59233.2023.00017(29-38)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ISMAR59233.2023.00017
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Chang JHahn NKim YCoupland JBreneisen BKim HHwong JKittur AKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)When the Tab Comes Due:Challenges in the Cost Structure of Browser Tab UsageProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445585(1-15)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
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