Example-centric programming: Difference between revisions

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'''Example-centric programming''' is an approach to [[software development]] that helps the user to create software by locating and modifying small examples into a larger whole. That approach can be helped by tools that allow an [[integrated development environment]] (IDE) to show code examples or [[API]] documentation related to coding behaviors occurring in the IDE. “Borrow” tactics are often employed from online sources, by programmers leaving the IDE to troubleshoot.<ref name="blueprint">{{cite book|last1=Scaffidi|first1=Christopher|last2=Brandt|first2=Joel|last3=Burnett|first3=Margaret|author3-link=Margaret Burnett|last4=Dove|first4=Andrew|last5=Myers|first5=Brad|title=SIG: end-user programming|journal=CHI '12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems |chapter=SIG: End-user programming |date=2012|pages=1193–1996|doi=10.1145/2212776.2212421|isbn=9781450310161|s2cid=17748945 }}</ref>

The purpose of example-centric programming is to reduce the time spent by developers searching online. Ideally, in example-centric programming, the [[user interface]] integrates with help module examples for assistance without programmers leaving the IDE. The idea for this type of “instant documentation” is to reduce programming interruptions.<ref name="redprint">{{cite book|last1=Bhardwaj|first1=Anant|last2=Luciano|first2=Date|last3=Klemmer|first3=Scott|title=Redprint: integrating API specific "instant example" and "instant documentation" display interface in IDEs|journal=Proceedings of the 24th Annualannual ACM Symposiumsymposium Adjunctadjunct on User Interfaceinterface Softwaresoftware and Technologytechnology |chapter=Redprint |date=2011|pages=21–22|doi=10.1145/2046396.2046408|isbn=9781450310147|s2cid=23031454 }}</ref> The usage of this feature is not limited to experts, as some novices reap the benefits of an integrated knowledge base, without resorting to frequent web searches or browsing.<ref name="blueprint" />

==Background==

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Prevalence of online code repositories, documentation, blogs and forums—enables programmers to build applications iteratively searching for, modifying, and combining examples.

Using the web is integral to an opportunistic approach to programming when focusing on speed and ease of development over code robustness and maintainability. There is a widespread use of the web by programmers, novices and experts alike, to [[software prototyping|prototype]], ideate, and discover.<ref name="original">{{cite book|last1=Brandt|first1=Joel|last2=Guo|first2=Philip|last3=Lewenstein|first3=Joel|last4=Dontcheva|first4=Mira|last5=Klemmer|first5=Scott|title=Two studies of opportunistic programming: interleaving web foraging, learning, and writing code|journal=Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |chapter=Two studies of opportunistic programming |date=2009|pages=1589–1598|doi=10.1145/1518701.1518944|isbn=9781605582467|s2cid=2907348 }}</ref>

To develop software quickly programmers often mash up various existing systems. As part of this process, programmers must often search for suitable components and learn new skills, thus they began using the web for this purpose.

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When developing software programmers spend 19% of their programming time on the web.<ref name="original" /> Individuals use the web to accomplish several different kinds of activities. The intentions behind web use vary in form and time spent. Programmers spend most of the time learning a new concept, the least time is spent reminding themselves of details of a concept they already know, and in between they use the web to clarify their existing knowledge.<ref name="original" />

Example-centric programming tries to solve the issue of having to get out of the development environment to look for references and examples while programming. For instance, traditionally, to find API documentation and sample code, programmers will either visit the language reference website of theyor go to search engines and make API specific queries.<ref name="redprint" /> When trying to learn something new, programmers use [[Tutorial#Internet|web tutorials]] for just-in-time learning. Additionally, programmers deliberately choose not to remember complicated syntax and instead use the web as an external memory that can be accessed when needed.<ref name="original" />

==Benefits==

Some of the benefits of example-centric programming include:

*Prevention of usage errors <ref name=codelets>{{cite book|last1=Oney|first1=Stephen|last2=Brandt|first2=Joel|title=Codelets: linking interactive documentation and example code in the editor|journal=Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |chapter=Codelets |date=2012|pages=2697–2706|doi=10.1145/2207676.2208664|isbn=9781450310154|s2cid=9811795 }}</ref><ref name=codex>{{cite book|last1=Fast|first1=Ethan|last2=Steffee|first2=Daniel|last3=Wang|first3=Lucy|last4=Brandt|first4=Joel|last5=Bernstein|first5=Michael|title=Emergent, crowd-scale programming practice in the IDE|journal=Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |chapter=Emergent, crowd-scale programming practice in the IDE |date=2014|pages=2491–2500|doi=10.1145/2556288.2556998|isbn=9781450324731|citeseerx=10.1.1.645.4136|s2cid=2840903 }}</ref>

*Reduction of time searching for code examples <ref name="blueprint" /><ref name="redprint" />

*Reduction of time searching for API documentation <ref name="redprint" />

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Emergence can be defined as a process whereby larger entities, patterns, and regularities arise through interactions among smaller or simpler entities that themselves do not exhibit such properties. The extensive amount of code publicly available on the web can be used to find this type of patterns and regularities. By modeling how developers use programming languages in practices, algorithms for finding common idioms and detecting unlikely code can be created.<ref name="codex" />

This process is limited to the amount of code that programmers are willing and able to share. Because people write more code than they share online there is a lot of duplicated effort. To fully use the power of the crowd, the effort required to publish code online should be reduced.<ref name=ditty>{{cite book|last1=Lieber|first1=Thomas|last2=Miller|first2=Rob|title=Programming with everybody: tightening the copy-modify-publish feedback loop|journal=Adjunct Proceedingsproceedings of the 25th Annualannual ACM Symposiumsymposium on User Interfaceinterface Softwaresoftware and Technologytechnology |chapter=Programming with everybody |pages=101–102|doi=10.1145/2380296.2380342|year=2012|isbn=9781450315821|s2cid=1319863 }}</ref>

==Examples==

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;Redprint <ref name="redprint" />

Redprint is a browser-based development environment for [[PHP]] that integrates API specific "instant example" and "instant documentation" display interfaces. The prototype IDE was developed by [[Anant Bhardwaj]], then at [[Stanford University]] on the premise that task-specific example interfaces leave programmers having to understand the example code that has been found, and thus Redprint also includes an API specific search interface.<ref name="redprint">{{cite book|last1=Bhardwaj|first1=Anant|last2=Luciano|first2=Date|last3=Klemmer|first3=Scott|title=Redprint: integrating API specific "instant example" and "instant documentation" display interface in IDEs|journal=Proceedings of the 24th Annual ACM Symposium Adjunct on User Interface Software and Technology|date=2011|pages=21–22|doi=10.1145/2046396.2046408|isbn=9781450310147}}</ref> The API specific search interface searches for relevant API specific examples and documentation.

;Codex <ref name="codex" />

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A codelet is a block of example code an interactive helper widget that assists the user in understanding and integrating the example.

;Bing Code Search <ref>{{cite web|last1=Shiban|first1=Ala|title=Introducing Bing Code Search for C#|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2014/02/17/introducing-bing-code-search-for-c.aspx|website=blogs.msdn.com|date=17 February 2014 |accessdate=8 December 2014}}</ref>

Bing Code Search is an extension to [[Microsoft Visual Studio]] developed by a team made of people from Visual Studio, Bing and Microsoft Research that allows developers to search code examples and documentation from [[Bing (search engine)|Bing]] directly from [[IntelliSense]].

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Codota helps developers find typical [[Java (programming language)|Java]] code examples by analyzing millions of code snippets available on sites such as [[GitHub]] and [[StackOverflow]]. Codota ranks these examples by criteria such as commonality of the coding patterns, credibility of the origin and clarity of the code.

The Codota plugin for the [[IntelliJ IDEA]] and [[Android Studio]] IDEs allows developers to get code examples for using Java and android APIs without having to leave their editor.

;UpCodeIn

UpCodeIn is a source code search engine that allows developers to find and reuse software components from the Internet. A unique feature of UpCodeIn compared to other source code search engines is its ability to find code for syntax element, for example you can find methods with specific parameter type, annotation, variables.

UpCodeIn understand syntax of many programming languages like Java, JavaScript, Python and C#.

==See also==

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== External links ==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20151019185229/http://projects.csail.mit.edu/video/talks/hci/hciBrandt.mp4/ Joel Brandt Talk]

[[Category:Human–computer interaction]]