Archetypal Internet-Scale Source Code Searching

Abstract

Programmers often search for Open Source code to use in their projects. To understand how and why programmers search for source code, we conducted a web-based survey and collected data from 69 respondents, including 58 specific examples of searches. Analyzing these anecdotes, we found that they could be categorized along two orthogonal dimensions: motivation (reuse vs. reference example) and size of search target. The targets of these searches could range in size from a block (a few lines of code) to a subsystem (e.g. library or API), to an entire system. Within these six combinations of motivations and target sizes, nine repeating motifs, or archetypes, were created to characterize Internet-scale source code searching. Tools used for searching and the criteria for selecting a component are also discussed. We conclude with guidance on how these archetypes can inform better evaluation of Internet-scale code search engines, as well as the design of new features for these tools.

Adoption of open source software in software-intensive organizations – A systematic literature review

“…While there are a few studies outside the scope of this review focusing on software selection [46,56,105,184] and knowledge sharing within OSS communities [119,173,195], none of these are directed towards studying actual practice in organizations. A few studies have started to look at some of the challenges in the borderlands between integrating an OSS component and contributing to the development of it [106,130,186], but further research is needed to solve the maintenance challenges facing developers who integrate a large number of components into their products.…”

Leveraging usage similarity for effective retrieval of examples in code repositories

“…Hoffmann et al [24] showed that when developers search the Web, the majority of their queries are about APIs. Other studies of developers' needs and practices have shown that developers seek and use code examples to learn APIs [35,32,39,34,36,44].…”

More archetypal usage scenarios for software search engines

“…This general impression is clearly backed-up by the recent online survey conducted by Umarji et al [11] who identified nine archetypal groups of source code searches amongst 58 anecdotes of how developers typically use source code search engines. Eight of these nine archetypes deal with reuse and the authors were able to distinguish four subgroups of searches for reusable code from four subgroups with searches for reference examples that are supposed to deliver some inspiration for how to implement some given programming task.…”

“…The developer makes use of the search engine to support the design process of the component being developed and to get support in the early implementation phase. Speculative searches subsume methods like the design prompter (see below), or drawing inspiration from open source and library searches as described in [11]. Searches for reusable code snippets also identified in the cited source are the only small exception in this context as they typically only appear while developers are already coding.…”

“…In addition to our own fledgling thoughts in this area [3] we are only aware of two publications by Sim et al and Umarji et al [10,11] that describe surveys amongst developers and maintainers published in 1998 respectively 2008. Although they provide valuable insights on the current usage of source code search engines, they did not elaborate on the further potential of software search engines in general.…”