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

计算机软件已经变得高度复杂，许多应用程序现在都在数百万行代码中，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为复杂的应用程序添加新功能时，会花费大量时间在所有这些代码中进行导航。这个研究项目将为程序员开发一个新的用户界面，称为代码气泡，它可以可视化他们需要同时在屏幕上操作和引用的许多代码片段，以及这些代码片段之间的相互关系。在一个屏幕上提供这样一个包含所有相关代码片段的“工作集”，标志着从根本上背离了当今软件开发环境的工作方式，在这种情况下，程序员一次只能看到或处理代码中的少数几个位置，并且必须依赖内存或文件之间的连续导航来检查他们的工作集。对使用早期版本的代码气泡的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思考软件开发的方式，并导致更高效、更健壮的应用程序，并降低开发成本。代码气泡基于用户界面设计，便于同时查看和操作执行任务所需的细粒度信息片段。与基于在文件粒度查看代码的概念的传统交互开发环境不同，代码气泡将代码片段、文档和其他构件显示为小气泡，这些气泡通过在大型虚拟显示器上彼此推开来避免遮挡。文本在气泡内自动回流，以最大限度地提高屏幕空间的使用效率，并将用于操作气泡的“Chrome”保持在最低限度，同样是为了保留内容空间。该项目将把代码气泡的概念应用到广泛的编程构件中，包括脚本编写、调试、代码审查和协作。将使用迭代设计过程，专业开发人员以及学生在整个设计过程中就可视化和用户界面设计提供反馈。作为评估计划的一部分，将进行的实验将包括纵向研究，在这些研究中，开发人员将代码气泡系统“带回家”，并在他们的项目中使用它，然后提供反馈并参与定期采访。代码泡泡的一个版本将用于教育目的(从高中到大学)，并将被整合到布朗大学和中佛罗里达大学的计算机科学课程中。最后，代码气泡将作为开源免费分发，这样软件开发人员就可以开始使用它，也可以贡献自己的功能。

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.