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Two Studies of Opportunistic Programming: Interleaving Web Foraging, Learning, and Writing Code (2009)
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| Citations: | 67 - 6 self |
BibTeX
@MISC{Brandt09twostudies,
author = {Joel Brandt and Philip J. Guo and Joel Lewenstein and Mira Dontcheva and Scott R. Klemmer},
title = {Two Studies of Opportunistic Programming: Interleaving Web Foraging, Learning, and Writing Code},
year = {2009}
}
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Abstract
This paper investigates the role of online resources in problem solving. We look specifically at how programmers—an exemplar form of knowledge workers—opportunistically interleave Web foraging, learning, and writing code. We describe two studies of how programmers use online resources. The first, conducted in the lab, observed participants ’ Web use while building an online chat room. We found that programmers leverage online resources with a range of intentions: They engage in just-in-time learning of new skills and approaches, clarify and extend their existing knowledge, and remind themselves of details deemed not worth remembering. The results also suggest that queries for different purposes have different styles and durations. Do programmers’ queries “in the wild ” have the same range of intentions, or is this result an artifact of the particular lab setting? We analyzed a month of queries to an online programming portal, examining the lexical structure, refinements made, and result pages visited. Here we also saw traits that suggest the Web is being used for learning and reminding. These results contribute to a theory of online resource usage in programming, and suggest opportunities for tools to facilitate online knowledge work.
Keyphrases
opportunistic programming writing code online resource interleaving web foraging new skill particular lab knowledge worker different purpose online resource usage online programming portal exemplar form result page problem solving just-in-time learning different style web foraging lexical structure programmer query online knowledge work online chat room participant web use
