Usability Implications of Requiring Parameters in Objects' Constructors
Usability Implications of Requiring Parameters in Objects' Constructors
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DOI：
10.1109/icse.2007.92
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发表时间：
2007-05
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Jeffrey Stylos;S. Clarke
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Jeffrey Stylos;S. Clarke
API 的可用性对于程序员的生产力越来越重要。根据特定 API 可用性研究的经验，探索了研究许多 API 通用设计选择的可用性的技术。进行了一项比较研究，以评估专业程序员如何在对象构造函数中使用带有所需参数的 API，而不是无参数的“默认”构造函数。据推测，所需参数将通过指导程序员正确使用对象并防止错误来创建更多可用和自记录的 API。然而，研究发现，与预期相反，程序员强烈喜欢使用不需要构造函数参数的 API，并且使用起来更有效。使用认知维度框架分析参与者的行为，并揭示所需的构造函数参数会干扰常见的学习策略，导致不良的过早承诺。
The usability of APIs is increasingly important to programmer productivity. Based on experience with usability studies of specific APIs, techniques were explored for studying the usability of design choices common to many APIs. A comparative study was performed to assess how professional programmers use APIs with required parameters in objects' constructors as opposed to parameterless "default" constructors. It was hypothesized that required parameters would create more usable and self- documenting APIs by guiding programmers toward the correct use of objects and preventing errors. However, in the study, it was found that, contrary to expectations, programmers strongly preferred and were more effective with APIs that did not require constructor parameters. Participants' behavior was analyzed using the cognitive dimensions framework, and revealing that required constructor parameters interfere with common learning strategies, causing undesirable premature commitment.