SHF: Large: A Working Set Approach to Integrated Development Environments

计算机软件已经变得非常复杂，许多应用程序现在有数百万行代码，程序功能通常分布在许多文件和目录中。因此，今天的软件工程师在向复杂的应用程序添加新功能时，需要花费大量的时间来浏览所有这些代码。 这个研究项目将为程序员开发一个名为Code Bubbles的新用户界面，该界面可以可视化他们需要在屏幕上同时使用和引用的许多代码片段，沿着这些代码片段之间的相互关系。在一个屏幕上提供所有相关代码片段的“工作集”标志着与当今软件开发环境的工作方式的彻底背离，在当今软件开发环境中，程序员一次只能看到或处理代码中的几个位置，并且必须依赖于内存或文件之间的连续导航来检查其工作集。 使用早期版本的Code Bubbles对软件开发人员进行的初步用户研究表明，该方法有可能彻底改变程序员对软件开发的思考方式，并导致更高效，更强大的应用程序，并降低开发成本。Code Bubbles基于用户界面设计，便于同时查看和操作执行任务所需的细粒度信息片段。 与传统的交互式开发环境不同，它基于以文件的粒度查看代码的概念，Code Bubbles将代码片段，文档和其他工件显示为小气泡，这些气泡通过在大型虚拟显示器上相互推开来避免遮挡。 文本在气泡内自动回流，以最大限度地利用屏幕空间，“Chrome”，即，控件操作气泡，保持在最低限度，再次为内容保留空间。这个项目将把代码气泡的概念应用到广泛的编程工件中，包括脚本编写、调试、代码审查和协作。 一个迭代的设计过程将被使用，涉及专业开发人员以及学生在整个设计过程中提供可视化和用户界面设计的反馈。 作为评估计划的一部分进行的实验将包括纵向研究，开发人员将代码泡沫系统“带回家”并将其用于他们的项目，然后提供反馈并参加定期访谈。 Code Bubbles的一个版本将用于教育目的（高中到大学），并将被整合到布朗大学和中央佛罗里达大学的计算机科学课程中。 最后，Code Bubbles将作为开源软件免费发布，以便软件开发人员可以开始使用它并贡献自己的功能。

Computer software has become highly complex, with many applications now in the millions of lines of code, and program features often spread across many files and directories. As a result of this, software engineers today spend a significant amount of time struggling with navigating through all of this code as they add new features to complex applications . This research project will develop a new user interface for programmers called Code Bubbles that visualizes the many pieces of code they need to work with and reference on the screen simultaneously, along with the interrelationships between these code fragments. Providing such a "working set" of all the relevant code fragments on one screen marks a radical departure from the way software development environments work today, where programmers can only see or work with a few locations in the code at a time and have to rely either on memory or on continuous navigation between files to examine their working set. Preliminary user studies with software developers using an early version of Code Bubbles indicate that the approach has the potential to revolutionize the way programmers think about software development and lead to more efficient and more robust applications, and to lower development costs. Code Bubbles is based on a user interface design that facilitates the simultaneous viewing and manipulation of the fine-grained fragments of information needed to perform tasks. Unlike conventional Interactive Development Environments, which are grounded upon the notion of viewing code at the granularity of a file, Code Bubbles displays fragments of code, documentation, and other artifacts as small bubbles which avoid occlusion by pushing each other out of the way across a large virtual display. Text is automatically reflowed within bubbles for maximum efficiency in using screen space, and "chrome", i.e., controls for manipulating a bubble, is kept to a minimum, again to preserve space for content. This project will apply the Code Bubbles concept to a wide range of programming artifacts including scripting, debugging, code review, and collaboration. An iterative design process will be used that involves professional developers as well as students giving feedback on visualization and user interface designs throughout the design process. The experiments to be conducted as part of the evaluation plan will include longitudinal studies in which developers "take home" the Code Bubbles system and use it on their projects and then give feedback and participate in regular interviews. A version of Code Bubbles will be implemented for educational purposes (high school through college) and will be integrated into Computer Science courses at Brown University and the University of Central Florida. Finally, Code Bubbles will be distributed freely, as open source, so that software developers can begin using it and also contribute their own features.