What Drives the Reading Order of Programmers?
Norman Peitek, Janet Siegmund, Sven Apel
Abstract
Background: The way how programmers comprehend source code depends on several factors, including the source code itself and the programmer. Recent studies showed that novice programmers tend to read source code more like natural language text, whereas experts tend to follow the program execution flow. But, it is unknown how the linearity of source code and the comprehension strategy influence programmers' linearity of reading order.
Topics & Concepts
ProgrammerComputer scienceSource codeProgramming languageProgram comprehensionReading (process)Code (set theory)Open sourceSoftwareLinguisticsSoftware systemSet (abstract data type)PhilosophySoftware Engineering ResearchOpen Source Software InnovationsSoftware Reliability and Analysis Research