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Generative AI agents are reshaping human-computer interaction, shifting users from direct task execution to supervising machine-driven actions, especially the rise of "vibe coding" in programming. Yet little is known about how screen reader…

Code review is a widely-used practice in software development companies to identify defects. Hence, code review has been included in many software engineering curricula at universities worldwide. However, teaching code review is still a…

Understanding the purpose of source code is a critical task in software maintenance, onboarding, and modernization. While large language models (LLMs) have shown promise in generating code explanations, they often lack grounding in the…

Information Visualization has been utilized to gain insights from complex data. In recent times, Large Language Models (LLMs) have performed very well in many tasks. In this paper, we showcase the capabilities of different popular LLMs to…

Code annotations is a widely used feature in Java systems to configure custom metadata on programming elements. Their increasing presence creates the need for approaches to assess and comprehend their usage and distribution. In this…

While learning programming languages is crucial for software engineers, mastering the necessary tools is equally important. To facilitate this, JetBrains recently released the JetBrains Academy plugin, which customizes the IDE for learners,…

The challenge in learning abstract concepts from images in an unsupervised fashion lies in the required integration of visual perception and generalizable relational reasoning. Moreover, the unsupervised nature of this task makes it…

Proponents of software verification have argued that simpler code is easier to verify: that is, that verification tools issue fewer false positives and require less human intervention when analyzing simpler code. We empirically validate…

Introductory programming courses often emphasize mastering syntax and basic constructs before progressing to more complex and interesting programs. This bottom-up approach can be frustrating for novices, shifting the focus away from problem…

Background. Within the software industry, it is commonly estimated that software professionals invest a substantial portion of their work hours in the process of understanding existing systems. In this context, an ineffective technical…

Previous works from research and industry have proposed a spatial representation of code in a canvas, arguing that a navigational code space confers developers the freedom to organise elements according to their understanding. By allowing…

There are so many libraries of visualization components nowadays with their APIs often different from one another. Could these components be more similar, both in terms of the APIs and common functionalities? For someone who is developing a…

Human brains integrate linguistic and perceptual information simultaneously to understand natural language, and hold the critical ability to render imaginations. Such abilities enable us to construct new abstract concepts or concrete…

We asked students to explain the structure and execution of their small programs after they had submitted them to a programming exercise. These questions about learner's code (QLCs) were delivered at three occasions in an online and open…

Program visualizations help to form useful mental models of how programs work, and to reason and debug code. But these visualizations exist at a fixed level of abstraction, e.g., line-by-line. In contrast, programmers switch between many…

Visual cues such as structure, emphasis, and icons play an important role in efficient information foraging by sighted individuals and make for a pleasurable reading experience. Blind, low-vision and other print-disabled individuals miss…

Block-based programming languages like Scratch have become increasingly popular as introductory languages for novices. These languages are intended to be used with a "tinkering" approach which allows learners and teachers to quickly…

Significant research has provided robust task and evaluation languages for the analysis of exploratory visualizations. Unfortunately, these taxonomies fail when applied to communicative visualizations. Instead, designers often resort to…

The dominant programming languages support only linear text to express ideas. Visual languages offer graphical representations for entire programs, when viewed with special tools. Hybrid languages, with support from existing tools, allow…

While recent years have seen a growing interest in accessible visualization tools and techniques for blind people, little attention is paid to the learning opportunities and teaching strategies of data science and visualization tailored for…