English

Redprint: Integrating API specific "instant example" and "instant documentation" display interface in IDEs

Human-Computer Interaction 2014-09-24 v1

Abstract

Software libraries for most of the modern programming languages are numerous, large and complex. Remembering the syntax and usage of APIs is a difficult task for not just novices but also expert programmers. IDEs (Integrated Development Environment) provide capabilities like autocomplete and intellisense to assist programmers; however, programmers still need to visit search engines like Google to find API (Application Program Interface) documentation and samples. This paper evaluates Redprint - a browser based development environment for PHP that integrates API specific "Instant Example" and "Instant Documentation" display interfaces. A comparative laboratory study shows that integrating API specific "Instant Example" and "Instant Documentation" display interfaces into a development environment significantly reduces the cost of searching and thus significantly reduces the time to develop software.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.6678,
  title  = {Redprint: Integrating API specific "instant example" and "instant documentation" display interface in IDEs},
  author = {Anant Bhardwaj and Dave Luciano and Scott Klemmer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.6678},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

UIST 2011

R2 v1 2026-06-22T06:03:55.201Z