Today’s integrated development environments (IDEs) are hampered by their dependence on files and file-based editing. We propose a novel user interface that is based on collections of lightweight editable fragments, called bubbles, which when grouped together form concurrently visible working sets. In this paper we describe the design of a prototype IDE user interface for Java based on working sets. A quantitative evaluation shows that developers could expect to view a sizeable number of functions concurrently with relatively few UI operations. A qualitative user evaluation with 23 professional developers indicates a high level of excitement, interest, and potential benefits and uses.

Today’s integrated development environments (IDEs) are hampered by their dependence on files and file-based editing. We propose a novel user interface that is based on collections of lightweight editable fragments, called bubbles, which when grouped together form concurrently visible working sets. We describe the design of a prototype IDE user interface for Java based on working sets.

Today’s integrated development environments (IDEs) are hampered by their dependence on files and file-based editing. A novel user interface that is based on collections of lightweight editable fragments, called bubbles, which when grouped together form concurrently visible working sets is proposed. An overview of this interface, as well as a summary of the results of a quantitative and a qualitative evaluation of the interface is presented. 1.

Developers spend significant time reading and navigating code fragments spread across multiple locations. The filebased nature of contemporary IDEs makes it prohibitively difficult to create and maintain a simultaneous view of such fragments. We propose a novel user interface metaphor for code understanding based on collections of lightweight, editable fragments called bubbles, which form concurrently visible working sets. We present the results of a qualitative usability evaluation, and the results of a quantitative study which indicates Code Bubbles significantly improved code understanding time, while reducing navigation interactions over a widely-used IDE, for two controlled tasks.

Information Sciences and Technology iii Intelligent agents and cognitive models are useful for a number of purposes. Unfortunately, limited theory-based tool and language support for the creation of intelligent agents has made it difficult for modelers to create, debug, and reuse agent software. This dissertation explores how to make it easier to create intelligent agents, and especially cognitive models, by taking advantage of established software engineering principles. The benefits of applying software engineering principles to intelligent agent development is demonstrated with the creation of a high-level language and development environment that embodies these principles, and with an evaluation of this language and environment, in use, by students and cognitive modelers. TABLE OF CONTENTS