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Addressing misconceptions about code with always-on programming visualizations

Authors:

Joel R. Brandt,

Rob C. MillerAuthors Info & Claims

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

Pages 2481 - 2490

https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557409

Published: 26 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

We present Theseus, an IDE extension that visualizes run-time behavior within a JavaScript code editor. By displaying real-time information about how code actually behaves during execution, Theseus proactively addresses misconceptions by drawing attention to similarities and differences between the programmer's idea of what code does and what it actually does. To understand how programmers would respond to this kind of an always-on visualization, we ran a lab study with graduate students, and interviewed 9 professional programmers who were asked to use Theseus in their day-to-day work. We found that users quickly adopted strategies that are unique to always-on, real-time visualizations, and used the additional information to guide their navigation through their code.

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Cited By

Thorgeirsson SGraf OSu ZEdwards JTaeumel M(2024)The Hidden Program State Hurts EveryoneProceedings of the 2024 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software10.1145/3689492.3689813(266-274)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689492.3689813
Bianchi AYap ZLertjaturaphat PHenley AMoon KKim Y(2024)Inline Visualization and Manipulation of Real-Time Hardware Log for Supporting Debugging of Embedded ProgramsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36602508:EICS(1-26)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3660250
Zhang ATang XOney SChen YJoyner DKim MWang XXia M(2024)CFlow: Supporting Semantic Flow Analysis of Students' Code in Programming Problems at ScaleProceedings of the Eleventh ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale10.1145/3657604.3662025(188-199)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3657604.3662025
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Addressing misconceptions about code with always-on programming visualizations
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software verification and validation
      1. Software defect analysis
        Software testing and debugging

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Published In

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.

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Published: 26 April 2014

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CHI '14: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2014

Ontario, Toronto, Canada

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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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Cited By

Thorgeirsson SGraf OSu ZEdwards JTaeumel M(2024)The Hidden Program State Hurts EveryoneProceedings of the 2024 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software10.1145/3689492.3689813(266-274)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689492.3689813
Bianchi AYap ZLertjaturaphat PHenley AMoon KKim Y(2024)Inline Visualization and Manipulation of Real-Time Hardware Log for Supporting Debugging of Embedded ProgramsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36602508:EICS(1-26)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3660250
Zhang ATang XOney SChen YJoyner DKim MWang XXia M(2024)CFlow: Supporting Semantic Flow Analysis of Students' Code in Programming Problems at ScaleProceedings of the Eleventh ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale10.1145/3657604.3662025(188-199)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3657604.3662025
Hähnlein FBernstein GSchulz A(2024)Understanding and Supporting Debugging Workflows in CADProceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3654777.3676353(1-14)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
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Thorgeirsson SZhang CWeidmann TWeidmann KSu Z(2024)An Electroencephalography Study on Cognitive Load in Visual and Textual ProgrammingProceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 110.1145/3632620.3671124(280-292)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632620.3671124
Methfessel PBeckmann TRein PRamson SHirschfeld R(2024)MµSE: Supporting Exploration of Software-Hardware Interactions Through ExamplesProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642186(1-16)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642186
Huang RGuo PLerner S(2024)UNFOLD: Enabling Live Programming for Debugging GUI Applications2024 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)10.1109/VL/HCC60511.2024.00041(306-316)Online publication date: 2-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/VL/HCC60511.2024.00041
Zhao QChabbi MLiu XGrosser TDubach CSteuwer MXue JOttoni GQuintão Pereira F(2024)EasyView: Bringing Performance Profiles into Integrated Development EnvironmentsProceedings of the 2024 IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Code Generation and Optimization10.1109/CGO57630.2024.10444840(386-398)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/CGO57630.2024.10444840
Misback EChan CSaiki BJun ETatlock ZPanchekha P(2023)Odyssey: An Interactive Workbench for Expert-Driven Floating-Point Expression RewritingProceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3586183.3606819(1-15)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2023
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Jiang PSun FXia H(2023)Log-it: Supporting Programming with Interactive, Contextual, Structured, and Visual LogsProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581403(1-16)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581403
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