Visualizing Developers Interactions with the IDE
Lorenzo Baracchi · 2014
Software developers use Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) to cope with the complexity of editing, navigating and understanding software artifacts. IDEs integrate different tools like editors, debuggers, and version control system. Analyzing the interactions developers have with IDEs is a first step towards building better IDEs that enhance software development processes from the perspective of the software developer himself. We built the tool HACKNEYED, that provides a set of visualizations about the behavior of software developers while using IDEs. HACKNEYED leverages development sessions recorded with DFLOW. Using them we can analyze the behavior of software developers. By means of these visualizations we discovered some insights on the habits and actions of software developers. For example we have evidence that developers spend considerably more time in understanding software artifacts than editing them.