Abstract
To gain a better understanding of what, how, and why programmers search for code on the Internet, we conducted a web-based survey to understand the source code searching behavior of programmers, specifically, their search motivations, search targets, tools used, and code selection criteria. Data was collected from 69 respondents, including 58 specific examples of searches. We applied open coding to these anecdotes and found two major archetypes and one minor archetype, as well as, a range of sizes for search targets. The first archetype was searching for source code that could be excised and dropped into a project. The second archetype was searching for examples of source code to provide information, for example, using the World Wide Web as an enormous desk reference. The targets of these searches could vary in size from a few lines of code to an entire system. The minor archetype was searching for reports and repairs of defects. Factors affecting the final selection of a candidate piece of code included: peer recommendations; availability of help from other programmers; and the level of activity on a project.
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Umarji, M., Sim, S.E. (2013). Archetypal Internet-Scale Source Code Searching. In: Sim, S.E., Gallardo-Valencia, R.E. (eds) Finding Source Code on the Web for Remix and Reuse. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6596-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6596-6_3
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